Can I mix my widowed clowns??

[MatthewLaw]

Greetings All- A few weeks ago, one of my false percs disappeared, leaving the (bigger) female to herself. In a separate tank I kept a pair of black oceallaris clowns. Late last night I found one of my ocellaris clowns on the floor, apparently a victim of carpet surfing. I honestly do not remember if the surviving oceallaris clown is larger than the deceased.

The false perc is in my 'frag' tank so I was planning to capture the ocellaris (in my 60g DT) and put him/her in there as a trial. I tried to capture it for about 15 minutes and no success, with only a few close calls to hitting my corals. Now that I am seriously pondering my actions, my question is can I mix the false perc and remaining ocellaris? Or dont bother trying to capture it since it wont work either way?

Also, assuming I can mix them species wise, I may be dealing with two females which could be a serious issue. (they cant change sex back, can they?)

Thanks for your help!

 

[ezhoops]

Correct they cannot change back. they start out sexless juv's, then if a dominate female is present they will change to male and if a female is not around the male's or juv's will figure out who is the female and she will become the larger one.
to answer your question. you can try it (if you honestly don't remember the sex of the one) I would do so quickly cause once they figure out a female is not present the change can begin.

If they are both females they might be able to coexist if the tank is large enough otherwise you should know quickly

 

[davocean]

As long as they aren't both female you're fine.
I would intro in a specimen container to be safe.
Try catching clown at night when sleeping, they are pretty stupid at night, usually you can just reach in there and hand scoop them, and it will probably be a minute or so till they even wake and realize whats going on.

 

[MatthewLaw]

thanks for your help!! i found the ocellaris last night and I think she had died a short time earlier so I do not think the change has started (assuming a male)

 

[MatthewLaw]

thanks for the night catching idea. my only concern is once i catch the ocellaris and put him with the false perc, how do I monitor them for aggression? once he is put into the false percs tank will they go to sleep or aggression start instantly?

 

[Fretfreak13]

I had the same thing. They'll be at eachothers throats the second they see eachother, or at least mine were.

 

[davocean]

Thats why I rec having a specimen container.
It should be obvious as to whether she is just looking and curious, or bashing into it trying to kill it.

 

[MatthewLaw]

haha wow thanks for the advice...now just need to catch the ocellaris..

 

[ezhoops]

gotta love those maroons

 

[Sinful Aquatics]

Yeah I mixed my ocellaris with a black misbar it did fine