Clown pair - sudden problem

[adoptaspork]

Hello everyone!

I've got a question about the behaviors of my clownfish recently. Here's the back story:

The orange ocellaris clown (assumed to be the female) was added with a snowflake ocellaris (was the male) a while back to the tank. I went on vacation for a week and the people taking care of my tank lost the male and I had a momentary reef crash when I got back, so I didn't get another male for her until a few weeks I got back because I wanted to get my water parameters back in order.

A few weeks later, I got the black ocellaris and added him to the tank along with a sixline so that the orange one wouldn't single him out right away. I observed the black one at the store with the other juveniles, made sure "he" (or "it") was a middle-of-the-pack kind of guy, and made certain that he was a little smaller than my orange one so that there'd be no major male/female conflict.

For the past couple of months, the black and orange clowns have been fine with each other. "He" would swim around "her" and when she'd occasionally go after him, he'd go into his little submissive twitch and then they'd be okay all over again. Normal behavior.

NOW something very strange has happened in the past three or four days.

Suddenly, I found the black/white clown hiding behind my protein skimmer. The orange/white clown relentlessly charges the skimmer and keeps him smushed back there, presumably fearing for his life. Or hosting it?? For the first couple of days, this is how it went. He'd cower and twitch behind the skimmer constantly and dart out for food when I fed the tank. NOW, as of yesterday, "he" has started occasionally darting out "back" at "her" when she charges, but mostly cowers behind the skimmer. The orange ocellaris continues to charge him over and over and over, keeping him pinned in there, however......

In response to "him" SHE seems to be suddenly twitching! So now it's basically *charge* *twitch* *charge* *twitch* on her behalf.

Is there a dominance role reversal going on? I'd assumed that with the time alone and having been the dominant clown before the black was added, she was already a she. The black clown fell straight into a submissive position when I added him, so I assumed everything was hunky dory and that he was juvenile/male. Suddenly they hate each other after two months swimming side by side. Could they both be female now somehow? Should I separate the black one for fear that she's going to stress him to death? The orange clown usually hosts a duncan I have on the other side of the tank but her entire energy is spent on rushing the skimmer where the black one is right now. I'm so confused as to why this would be happening two months into their relationship, and why she's suddenly twitching?

Both fish are eating like pigs. The black one darts out to grab some feverishly and then gets chased back behind the skimmer once the orange one notices him. The wrasse is just kind of an onlooker. Nobody bothers him. He's a model citizen in the tank SO FAR despite what some people say about the sixlines.

I took a video this morning of the happenings...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17BSjIytezk&list=UUsG0xi9SkoFk7zc7gUfwSCA&index=1

Thanks, guys!

 

[BlueFyre]

It sounds like they are just now deciding on who will be female. As they get closer to maturity it can get a little brutal. I would wait it out as long as she isn't hurting him. I often see my female charge the male, he will twitch then she twitches back. I think it's just her proving her point or maybe she's mocking him lol.

Clown pairing can be brutal but most of the time it works out. They will figure it out and you will end up with a nice pair for years to come

 

[marinemanohio]

+1, definitely sounds like a typical course of establishing dominance.

 

[adoptaspork]

Good to hear that this is normal...I was afraid that perhaps I'd accidentally ended up with two females and that this wasn't normal behavior. Clowns are so odd!

I've heard of placing a mirror beside the tank to try to divert some aggression from other fish. Would that be beneficial at this point in their relationship to ease a bit of the aggression from the poor black clown? Or should I just let them duke it out and hope it doesn't last too long?

 

[monkeybiz]

I had something very similar happen. One of my clownfish (female) dies and I replaced her with a Picasso clownfish that was much larger then the male.

Right away the Picasso was dominant and the existing male would do the submissive shiver.

The Picasso accepted one of my rbta's as its host (something the older male and dead female never did ) but would always chase the smaller male out of the anemone.

One night, the smaller male snuck into the anemone and chased the larger newer Picasso clownfish out. Now the smaller male clownfish has become much more agressive and is charging the Picasso clownfish.

Now only the smaller one goes to the anemone and the picasso, which was first to the anemone, no longer goes to the anemone and sleeps at the bottom front of the tank.

The smaller clownfish will leave the anemone to charge at the bigger picasso and than returns to the anemone.

I'm assuming that they are both males now and just trying to figure out who will be female.

 

[adoptaspork]

unfortunately my beautiful little black and white clown passed away. i'm thinking the female stressed him to death, literally. i was feeding him in the corner while keeping him distracted and he was still eating, but one morning my boyfriend came out and found him dead and half-eaten by the cuc. i'm disheartened because i really enjoyed him...

is there something i can do to divert her wrath when i add another?? i'd added the wrasse at the same time as the juv clown to get her to give him a break, but she's ignored the wrasse since the moment he hit the tank and as i'd mentioned earlier ignored/was fine with the b/w clown for a couple of months before going on this rampage. she's back to hosting my duncan by herself per usual.

 

[addictedreefer]

Pretty much trial and error IME. I had a female occellaris mercilessly attack a much smaller newly introduced male/juvi only to welcome another (almost identically sized) male/juvi into her anemone with open arms only a week later.

I would introduce a new male in a clear accimation/breeding container first in order to guage the female's response before adding the male.

 

[adoptaspork]

Thanks for the info! I've got a clear breeder box so I'll use that next time.