Cursed tank. no pairs for me!

[Jovreefer]

Whom ever I insulted on this board please accept my appoligy & take the cuse off my tank! I'm sorry! I did not mean to.

For the life of me I cannot get clowns to pair in this 20 gallon tank I have.

-I tried 2 small WC PNG percs ... one jumped 2nd got killed by an old 6 line.
- Got a WC PNG female & paired her with a rods onyx juvi, they ignored each other then fought till I sold her
- Got a WC SI onxy to pair the Rods with... the rods refused to submit & after 6 months of pairing attempts & one last very brutal attempt I gave up and sold her too.
- Got a juvi ORA picasso to pair with the rods onyx when he came out of QT from the beating. Tried to pair for 2 months but the rods beat up the ORA. (put the rods back in QT)
-Got a second rods figuring out of 3 fish I should get ONE friggin pair! NO LUCK!

I'm still trying to pair 2 of these fish up!

I have never had this much trouble pairing any fish before in my life

Thanks for letting me vent!

 

[kkyyllee]

maybe they change sex durring qt?

 

[bpoore89]

I feel your pain. I've had such a hard time getting my clowns to pair. After months of staring at the tank and sending subliminal messages, they finally decided it might be a good idea. Just give it some time. I know its frustrating but hang in there!

 

[BristlewormKing]

What else do you have in your tank? I usually place potential broodstock in 12 gal cubes when they are juvi's until I see that one is clearly dominate and the other is submissive and then move them into larger tanks - usually takes 2-3 months (I add both fish to a cube at the same time so one does not have an advantage over the other). But with a 20 gal tank, I would think there would be enough room for juveniles that they could separate if needed (also provide a couple of hiding places -even if the fish are the same size).

Do you have any type of anemone or other host that would make one defend the area from the second fish??

Good luck!

 

[Jovreefer]

I did not have an anem for 2 years while tring to pair them, I just got one about a month ago hoping that might help. I have one in the 20 & one in the 10 QT. I swap them in and out with each other when one gets beaten to bad. none of them want to submit there is only 1 over a year old & its always been the smaller fish getting beat up so it should be male still.

I'm just hoping eventually they will mature soon & finally pair.

 

[ArgonDreams]

Try using a breeding box or speciman container and place it in the tank. this will allow them to view eachother but not fight and eventually become calmer, put the Juvinlle in there. Also re-arrange the rock in the tank if you try to introduce again and THEN introduce within minutes so they both have to search for new territory.