Clown fish is having spazms!!!

A

Anthonius

New member
Alright folks, I noticed today when I got back from deer hunting that my clownfish were doing some odd dance... Well one was doing an odd dance while the other fluttered around carelessly. The bigger of the two turns on its side and does this wierd twitch usually about 3-4 twitches and then it swims off only to come back a moment later and do the same thing. Also they both seem to be hosting on a piece of rock in the bottom right corner of my tank and anytime that they touch a fin or anything the dance begins again. Are we doing a dominance dance? a mating ritual? whats the deal?

aside from the odd dance the bigger clown fish is picking on my nassarius snails. keeps biting their shells and flipping them over. I havent caught the clown nipping at the snail itself just the flipping the shell. Show that snail whos boss tough-guy!
 
Anthonius said:
Alright folks, I noticed today when I got back from deer hunting that my clownfish were doing some odd dance... Well one was doing an odd dance while the other fluttered around carelessly. The bigger of the two turns on its side and does this wierd twitch usually about 3-4 twitches and then it swims off only to come back a moment later and do the same thing. Also they both seem to be hosting on a piece of rock in the bottom right corner of my tank and anytime that they touch a fin or anything the dance begins again. Are we doing a dominance dance? a mating ritual? whats the deal?

aside from the odd dance the bigger clown fish is picking on my nassarius snails. keeps biting their shells and flipping them over. I havent caught the clown nipping at the snail itself just the flipping the shell. Show that snail whos boss tough-guy!
Click to expand...

Ive got a pair of clown doing the same thing, I belive they are working on becoming a mated pair. We'll see what some of the more experienced folks have to say.

Also there is a lot of great info here. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1381958
 
My clowns did this the other day, and haven't done it since. They were doing this on the same spot and starting cleaning the rock off. It could be a couple more days, weeks or even months before they it lays eggs, just depends on the pair.
 
unfortunately i dont have the means of raising clown fry... seems they will be skimmer food. good to know the clowns are happy though.
 
1DeR9_3Hy said:
Spawning clowns are good clowns. Congrats on the happy fish.
Click to expand...

thanks... i do belive this is odd. the clowns have been in the tank for only a month. on top of that i introduced them 3 days apart. they are similar in size. could i have been lucky enough to have purchased a male and a female. or can they switch sexes that fast? any breeders out there have the skinny on this. I would love to harvest these little guys if possible. i was just reading they can eat baby brine shrimp. brine shrimp are easy to hatch.
 
looks more like to me that they are just becomming a pair rather than ready to spawn. the dance your seeing is prob. just to see who will become the female and who will be the male.

bbs will be to big of food for the fry to start with. you need to start with rotifers.

if you are looking to raise the fry down the road when it happens then I suggest getting the book clownfishies by joyce wilkerson
 
Well....

Ive had 3 spawning pairs at once (all separate tanks). BBS will not work, you may get lucky and get a few to come through on BBS but it wont work (for a few reasons, size is the main one). Rotifers, enriched rotifers are the primary first food for clown larvae.

As for your clowns, were they held in a tank with a lot of other similar sized clowns at the store? What can happen is one female will be present, then one male...and this can suppress the rest of the "pack" in that tank from maturing sexually until they are removed. With only two clowns in your tank, its likely they are working out whos going to be the guy and who will be the gal now that they are not suppressed in the stores tank. It can happen fast, mine took about two months from when i got them out of the store into my tank.

Check out mofib.org for all the info you will need, sign up there and read read read!!!
 
ok thought it might of been kinda ritual like... i also just noticed the bigger clown is kinda aggressive... i watch just watching the tank a min ago and watched this clown take a huge bite of hair algae... im not complaining or anything but the fish hit the algae like it was defending its children or something.
 
They definitely aren't spawning. Just pairing.

Congrats, my clowns are fighting endlessly now as well.
 
You will probably see them 'mouthing' things from now on. I guess its how the determine what is a good spawning surface and what is not.
 
i noticed mine doing this over the coarse of a couple days after i added them both a week apart. they are juvenile so im sure they are not about to spawn, im hoping they are just pairing up. but since the little shake dance i notice they dont swim together as much and when they sleep they are on opposite ends of the tank. go figure lol.
 
When the female stomach is getting big and you see a pair of small protrusions at the cloaca, then she is ready to lay eggs. The shaking behavior is not a part of spawning, JMO.
 
Mine do the dance when they're getting ready to spawn. At least, when they dance around there are eggs within a few days. I don't worry about the eggs, I figure corals need food too :)
 
Both times I have introduced a new male to my female they both exhibit this behavior. It is a courtship dance during the pairing to say hey you look good today, and the other one says well thank you I think I do look good myself.:D
 
lol... they are really odd fish... i suppose thats why its the most popular fish to have in a sw tank reef or fowlr.
 
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