Blood Orange Clownfish Pairing Behavior

[rffanat1c]

So I've got one almost 3" blood orange (maroonxocellaris) clownfish I bought about a month ago. It set up shop in the lower right hand corner of my tank as you're facing it. I'm guessing it is female based on size and it moved most of the sand there to make its sleeping quarters.

On Saturday, I added a 1" blood orange I got my from LFS that had just arrived the day before from ORA in a group of about 20. I acclimated him and put him in the tank. As I expected, the larger one noticed immediately and began the attack. The small one immediately began quivering and submitting and even kissing the side of the large one. The large one never bit or really struck the little one, but kept coming back and charging and the little one kept the quiver up.

Moving on to Sunday, the little one slept on the far upper left part of the tank and throughout the day, the larger one would charge it randomly and the small one would quiver. A few times, the large one would reciprocate the shimmy and go back to its spot. Sunday night I peak in and see the small one sleeping "just around the corner" from the large one's spot.

Today I saw the quiver/shimmy dance happen once or twice and the small one keeps coming back to the large one's side of the tank. The large one randomly will chase the small one out of that side, but it keeps coming back. The large one will even let it stay within a foot of it but will then randomly decide to charge it back to the other side.

Just looking for some confirmation from others that this looks like it is heading in the right direction. Also laying this out there for others who have or want blood orange's. I didn't find much at all through the Google regarding this specific breed.

 

[reefer1970]

Same thing in my tank

Same thing in my tank

Sounds like the normal progression I have been expecting. I put in two small picassos last week and had forgot I had a large maroon clown.
A little aggression followed by herding them to one side of the tank constantly , and now they are the best of friends. I've heard this is how blood oranges are bred- I could be wrong. I'd like to know if your 3" and 1" (or my 3" and 1/2") will breed or at some point when the smaller catches up in size.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Sounds all normal, remember what makes a Blood Orange in the first place is one very aggressive Maroon Clown. This part of the genetic makeup of the BO will always be present in the aggression part anyway. So what you're describing sounds like a very positive reaction from the much larger female. The males will never catch up in size to the female and will remain much smaller. If you Google any of the clownfish species and look at the images you will see how drastic this size difference becomes as they mature.

 

[Canneddynomite]

yours sound almost identical to how mine reacted (maroons) when they were pairing. It took 2 weeks of this and then the larger Female one instead of charging would casually swim up to the male and try to coax him towards the anemone. That happened for the last 3 days out of the two weeks and then all of a sudden he just followed her to the nem. But yea my male the first week and a half was at the top right of my tank and the female charged him all day randomly and he would submit and all that good stuff.

 

[rffanat1c]

Thanks all, I just wanted to double check with this hybrid. I've had a pair of maroons before, but they were wild caught and already paired.

 

[rffanat1c]

I believe I have a pair! They sleep near each other now.

 

[Canneddynomite]

Yay!