velvetelvis
Active member
This story doesn't make me look good, but I'll just go ahead and tell on myself because it revealed some interesting behavior on the part of my pair of juvenile B&W ocellaris.
I accidentally overdosed my tank with buffer the other night. I think it must have badly affected my male clownfish, because next morning he was resting on the sand in the back of the tank, in their usual sleeping place, instead of swimming with his mate. They usually hover near the bottom at night, but this time the male wasn't "getting up" and instead was resting upright, breathing a little hard.
What was interesting was the female's behavior. She seemed distressed: she would swim up to the male, nudge him, then hover around before coming back and nudging him again. The more times this happened without him responding, the more agitated she seemed. Once I realized what had happened, I added about half a gallon of fresh water (I'm recovering from surgery so can't lift heavy buckets in order to do a real water change) to the tank. This seemed to work, as the male recovered and began behaving normally in a few minutes. I noticed that the pair stayed very close to each other for a while afterwards, though.
I just found this interaction interesting: we don't usually consider fish capable of attachments or emotions, and obviously I can't know what was actually going through my fishes' heads, but it certainly looked like the female was distressed at her mate's unresponsiveness. It was touching to watch, and made me even more fond of them. I'm glad I got a couple of juveniles and let them pair off...it's entertaining and endearing to watch them forming a bond.
I accidentally overdosed my tank with buffer the other night. I think it must have badly affected my male clownfish, because next morning he was resting on the sand in the back of the tank, in their usual sleeping place, instead of swimming with his mate. They usually hover near the bottom at night, but this time the male wasn't "getting up" and instead was resting upright, breathing a little hard.
What was interesting was the female's behavior. She seemed distressed: she would swim up to the male, nudge him, then hover around before coming back and nudging him again. The more times this happened without him responding, the more agitated she seemed. Once I realized what had happened, I added about half a gallon of fresh water (I'm recovering from surgery so can't lift heavy buckets in order to do a real water change) to the tank. This seemed to work, as the male recovered and began behaving normally in a few minutes. I noticed that the pair stayed very close to each other for a while afterwards, though.
I just found this interaction interesting: we don't usually consider fish capable of attachments or emotions, and obviously I can't know what was actually going through my fishes' heads, but it certainly looked like the female was distressed at her mate's unresponsiveness. It was touching to watch, and made me even more fond of them. I'm glad I got a couple of juveniles and let them pair off...it's entertaining and endearing to watch them forming a bond.
Male clownfish are definitely henpecked husbands.
