Clowns pairing or fighting? Help please

D

Dzel

In Memoriam
Hey guys. I was looking online about this and came upon this forum.

I got these 2 percula clowns, one was introduce about a week before the other and it's slightly bigger than the other one. I've been reading about that if they lock with their mouths, it means that they're both females fighting, but it always ends with a submission by the same fish every time. Also, the one that picks on the other one doesn't allow him eat. Whenever I feed my fish they both come to eat, but one chases the other away every time.

Is it possible for one of them to become a male at this point?

Should I separate them or leave them be for now?

I took a video of how they acted. I've only seen them do this one and after that one of them is always on a submission position when the other one approaches.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DekgGqzFW4


Any help would be much appreciated :p
 
Looks like both clowns want the dominant position and are not backing down. It could be that you do indeed have two females. I would trade one in for a juvenile.
 
Is it possible for one of them to become a male at this point?
Click to expand...

If they are both females, there is NO chance of reverting.

Did you buy these as TR or wild-caught? Why I ask is they have quite a bit of coloration and appear 2.5-3" which leads me to believe they could both be females. Do they fight all day everyday?

When I pair clowns, I always have one fish at least 1 yr so it turns female and grows larger then any juvie. I then place the juvie in with the female and observe so that it doesn't get out of hand. My Tomatos pair was the most viscious, but that was only when the juvie went for the big piece of food or tried to sleep in the female's 'cove'. This lasted almost a month.

I'm not that familiar with Percs, so I can't tell you if that is norm. behavior. I have never had two clowns mouth like that so they might both be females. Where did you find that info?

Keep an eye on them if you keep them in the same tank. They may be fine in the evening, but dead in the morning. Just a warning.....
 
I believe both of them were wild-caught, but one is about 1.5" and the other is about 2" The dominant one seems to be the smaller one. They don't fight like that anymore, what they do is the smaller one will chase the other and then the bigger one will lay down sideways and start twitching like having a seizure like a submissive behavior.

The info I found was here:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=215098

So the submissive behavior means that it's giving up on the fight? So if by "any" chance that one is still not a female, could it become a male? Or the mouth locking/fighting pretty much means that they're both females?
 
If they are wild caught they could both be juvies, males, females or any combination. The only way to know the trie gender of wild caught clowns is to personally collect them or buy a pair. I would keep an eye on them and see if this behaviour curtails in the upcoming weeks. If not, they will have to be seperated or you can take the smaller one back and get the smallest clown they have. This is one of many reasons I would not suggest wild-caught clowns.
 
An update on these clowns.

Both of them seem to be getting along now and they share/host the same anemone. The one that seemed to be the dominant one is getting bigger, but both of them are about the same size now.
 
hey Dzel

ya it looks like u were having a battle to find out who would be who. since your clowns are so close in size this might take longer. IF there getting along now dont worry about it u will see the female eat ALOOT in the on coming months and get big fast. to bad i found this thread late, i could have told u that the twitching is a very good sign :) its the male fish giving in to the female. you will be fine dont worry but 2 great looking onyx's
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15162597#post15162597 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by The REeFFers
hey Dzel

ya it looks like u were having a battle to find out who would be who. since your clowns are so close in size this might take longer. IF there getting along now dont worry about it u will see the female eat ALOOT in the on coming months and get big fast. to bad i found this thread late, i could have told u that the twitching is a very good sign :) its the male fish giving in to the female. you will be fine dont worry but 2 great looking onyx's
Click to expand...

Thanks! The twitching has stopped since the male doesn't get chased when eating anymore. Both of them eat together and get along.
 
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