Captive breed maroon pairing question

[Joeb1983]

As the title states I was wondering if anyone that has the knowledge can shed some light on my pairing attempt thus far.

First, I'm a designer clown nut. All paired:

Wide-bar mocha gladiators
Phantoms
Extreme davincis
Platinums

Set up a new tank (#5) strictly for a maroon pair.

I know maroons are different and have different needs and techniques. From what I researched, Normally you would have a well established/large female and attempt to introduce a new small male via breeder box and test runs.

With these being captive breed designers and tank raised could I get away with starting Juvenile?..

So, I contacted Sea and Reef along with Cultivated Reef as I do for for all my designers, to inquire about how they would go about pairing captive bred designer maroons as I hear they are less aggressive...

I was informed it would be fine to purchase a stargered size pair of juvenile designer maroons as they would sort it out together being so young.

So the order was placed for a ~2" lighting and ~1.5" mis-bared white.

They came in, acclimated and released keeping an eye on them. Needless to say they went at it. I knew this was expected and had the net and box ready in case the mis-bar needed extraction.

They locked mouths, fin grabbed and did the Harlem Shake. After a while and a few torn fins later the lighting was the clear victor.

That's was 3 days ago... No more fighting nor new damage since then. Both eating and active. The lighting patrols the tank has its spot next to the overflow box and keeps the mis-bar in the bottom corner.

Every now and then the lighting will rush in and the mis-bar will do the shimmy shake and the lighting will just swim next to for a bit then leave.

Obviously they are now at the tolerating stage... Am I on the right track? If this was regular clowns I'd say yes.

I have read it that Maroons will either submit or fight to the death. I have one clearly dominate and one clearly submissive at this point.

I am now at the monitoring stage. Let me know what you think. Thanks!

 

[Canneddynomite]

Well I introduced a Female to an Established Tank then about a week later introduces a much smaller male to the same tank and I had the exact same experience as you. After about a week and a half of the smaller Male being in the corner getting darted at randomly throughout the day by the female, he finally followed her back into the anemone. Everything you wrote sounds exactly like what happened to mine.

 

[Joeb1983]

^^^ Awesome! Glad to hear that.

Yeah, over the past few years I've put off maroons. Decided it was time.

They pay no mind to the 2 nems in the tank. The Lightning likes the overflow box and the mis-bar hangs out (likely due to no choice of its own) next to a Indo gold torch.

 

[rffanat1c]

Captive breed maroon pairing question

Same happened with my blood oranges minus the mouth locking. They sleep together now and the introduction was two weeks ago

 

[Joeb1983]

Checked them out again this morning before work. Same as the past few days. I'm just glad their not fighting anymore and from the sounds of it, it looks like I might have a shot.

 

[Canneddynomite]

yea soon you should see the female swim up to it semi casually and start trying to coax the male into following her back to her Nem. My male would run for a few days when she did this and she would just stare at him trying to get him to calm down or something lol

 

[Joeb1983]

Well, there was no fighting. Fins healing nicely. I would pop in to find them swimming next to each other periodically. To me it was going very well...

Today the lightning will NOT leave the mis-bar alone. It's chasing it all over the tank, nipping at its fins.

All the mis-bar can do is run and hide; until he's spotted again. Not sure what changed after a week.

Should I pull him out?

 

[Joeb1983]

I pulled him and put him in the breeder box as his fins are getting shredded. I've seen worse, but figured I'd do something before it got too bad.

Not sure what the heck happend overnight/today, but the Lightning is being absolutely relentless. She won't even give him time to breath let alone submit...

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Pull the aggressive one and put it in the breeder box

 

[Joeb1983]

Left him in the box for a day. The lighting would just patrol the tank and periodically rush, flash and try to nip at him. No damage obviously due to him being inside the box.

I let him out yesterday morning. They met head on and the mis-bar fled to a corner. The lighting patrols the tank keeping him in a corner, then will start chasing him all over the tank then the cycle begins again...

I have noticed he does not submissively shake anymore as he did in the beginning which seemed to stop the "attack". All he does is run and hide now.

I took your advice and put the aggressive fish in the box. What am I looking for and what's the timeline per say?

I know very well there may not be a chance with these two and there is no him/her yet, but dang these clowns are a whole other animal...

Also, the smaller mis-bar is a dark maroon while the Lightning is a rust/red orange. Will it darken?

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Putting the aggressor in the box allows the new fish time to acclimate to your tank and get comfortable with it. I'd wait at least a week if not longer.

 

[Joeb1983]

I'll keep this updated with any progress or setbacks. The mis-bar is slowly venturing out more and more and the lightning is like a wild caught and caged lion...

Honestly I'm liking the cheap mis-bar better than my expe$ive lightning... Not too "lightning" if you ask me and it's more orange red than maroon. (Maybe that will change)

The white bars are thick and ragged looking, but only a few small holes (5 on right side and 2 on the other between the all 3 stripes) to break up the pattern, but I wasn't paying an additional $100 for a WYSIWYG considering what it cost to begin with.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Ok, so where are the pictures?

 

[Joeb1983]

Here is a pic of the "lightning" I do not have a pic of the other. (Ill have to snap one after work)

You can see the lack of pattern break up... The other side has more, but it would stay on that side long enough for me to get a photo.

You can see in the batch photo the different markings.

I couldn't bring myself to spend $325 for a WYSIWYG... $225 was plenty! :eek2:

 

[Joeb1983]

The tank. I have moved the plate to the opposite side and now have a Indo gold torch in that spot long with another red tentacle, purple body with green mouth rock nem on the front pillar.

 

[Joeb1983]

Mis-bar

 

[Joeb1983]

Another pic

 

[Joeb1983]

Other side of lightning

 

[Joeb1983]

Well, I have an update.

The smaller mis-bar is now charging in and trying to attack the lightning that's in the box... It went from running from its own shadow to king of the tank in a day.

They try to go head to head, but it's over in a few seconds due to them not being able to do any damage to each other.

Is this a good thing? Seems like I'm back to square one.

 

[Joeb1983]

Putting the lightning up for sale. Believe it or not I like the other one better... Call me crazy.

I honestly don't think they will successfully pair. They fight through the box all day long and I believe at this point they would fight until one or both are dead.