clarkii clowns changing sex

[mnewsom]

my clarkii clowns have made a change in their sexes I think. the one that used to be the male is now residing in the anenome and getting much larger very quickly. the old female is all beat up and staying down in one corner of the tank. this happend about a week ago. she is eating now but will not venture very far from her corner. will she become male or will both be female and be able to coexist. they are in a 150 gallon tank so they can maintain a little distance from each other

 

[Tomoko Schum]

How old are they? If they are still small, they might have been too young until recently to be a male or a female. One of them might have matured enough and turned into a female now.

Tomoko

 

[mnewsom]

have had them a little over a year, what was the female was much larger than the other untill recently

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Joyce Wilkerson's book points out the interesting fact about Clark's clown. "A male may develop into a female, despite the presence of a "ranking" female. --- The two maids may tolerate each other - they may even lay a few clutches of useless eggs - or they may fight and require separate tanks." Another interesting thing about Clark's clown is that they show color difference between males and females. A female has a white tail whereas males, juveniles and young female have yellow tails.

Tomoko

 

[mnewsom]

both have yellow tails so i might be ok

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Your clownfish may be teenagers. It sounds like one of your fish is trying to be the dominant female, though.

Tomoko