Clarkii fighting

[Moort82]

Hi i've kept plenty of species of clowns before but am fairly new to Clarkii's and have a bit of fighting going on. I've had these two for around 6 months and they were at the shop for a few more. I'm fairly sure they were wild and the larger more dominant one is 2.5" and the smaller 2". I say more dominant but this is where the fighting comes in. The smaller has began to batter the larger one this morning and the larger is now cowering behind the heater.
The room that they are in gets cold and last night for the first time ever they had a cover over the tank so were kept dark. Normally they are lit from the window so i think this disturbance is what caused the aggression although i'm not sure why. Any one have any thoughts? Are they at the size where genders are picked and its just the smaller one wanting to be dominant? or would they likely have already sorted out sexes and its just a phase?

I don't think i've heard so much chattering between any clowns either and the smaller one isn't stupid as it won't attack the larger one front on, instead sneaky around the back to chase or biting the dorsal but it is bullying as i've never seen them show any interest in spawning or even cleaning an area to spawn.

TIA

 

[Moort82]

I recently stumbled on an article in an old Coral magazine by Professor Ellen Thaler that suggest Clarkii are capable of sex reversal in captivity. So my male could have tried to become dominant and naturally turned into a female but the female was unwilling or didn't have the chance to revert back to a male. Apparently this has been observed several times in captivity but would love to hear other peoples opinions.
As to what did actually happen i am unsure. The female healed well and the "male" is still at the lfs terrorising damsels but doesn't appear to have grown at all, so it could have just been aggression.

 

[snorvich]

Sex reversal would be amazing in clownfish. Only A. clarkii?

 

[deangelr]

Its only been anecdotal, but reported..

As long as the fish aren't getting completely ripped apart, I would keep them together.. It can takes weeks/months to sort out.

 

[Moort82]

I think it said that she'd witnessed it a few times personally and a couple of her colleagues had experience of the same but only in Clarkii's.

Unfortunately i had to split them up months ago as the male hadn't left any fins on the female and was incessantly biting her. I split them up with a tank divider but it kept trying to muscle in. When she had healed i tried again and the aggression was even worse so they stayed split up.

 

[Newby-Reefer]

Clarkii males are known to turn female even with an existing dominat female in the tank.

If it gets bad I would pull whichever you like less and trade it for a considerably smaller fish.