fighting ocellaris

[sea student]

I tried to pair up some ocellaris in my 25 gallon. We had one in there for about a year and half and then added a really small one, less than half the size of the original. It came from a tank at the LFS with tons of little ones. The older one chased the small one around for a while and then they started to hang out like a pair.
The last couple months everything has been going great. Now, the smaller one has had a growth spurt and is about 90% the size of the larger. The little one has started chasing the original one around a lot.
Is there a chance this will work out? Did I somehow end up with two females?

 

[redvipe2010]

I doubt you have two females. Has anything else changed in the tank? Is there actual fighting or nipping going on, or just chasing?

 

[sea student]

Chasing and I think nipping. They swim really fast during the chasing, much faster than when I feed them. I would say it may be fighting.

 

[sea student]

Still fighting. The original one is not standing up for herself at all. Which one should I get rid of? Any tips?

 

[Chad Vossen]

seperate them but keep them visually together. mine fought for 2 days before pairing up. if the one is half the size of the other, then it should be a male.

so the original (assumed female) is the one getting beat up on??

 

[Slakker]

The one WAS half the size of the other, and then grew to nearly the same size.

 

[sea student]

Right, they're almost the same size now. After the initial fighting they got along great for months. Then the growth spurt, and now the one that was little is chasing the original.

 

[hesaias]

here is what I wrote in the other thread

I cannot say for sure, but the switching of dominant roles is not unheard of as they mature.

My false percs started out best buddies when they were 1/2" long. All was fine for a long time, then the beatings, some very difficult to watch started. One fish beat the crap out of the other, the other hid and cowered. Sometimes behind the heater or a powerhead as far from the other clown as possible, but at night, they slept next to each other. A few weeks later, the one that was getting the beatings, which had a scar, was the dominant one, and beat thecrap out of the other one for a few weeks. The one with the scar, which administered the beatings last, became the female.

Watch how they act after lights out. If they sleep close to each other, I would not sweat it too much. If Nemo is a runt, Doug will wind up the female.

If you seperate them, they will probably both stay male, and resume setting up a peching order as soon as you put them back together.

 

[sea student]

They do still hang out together a lot. I will see what they do when the lights go out as suggested. You're not going to believe this, but our potential runt is named "Nemo" as well, what are the odds...yeah right. Our littler one is "Minnow" since he was so small...not as funny as Doug. We may have to change the name to "Mean-O".

 

[hesaias]

them hanging out any tells me its just the mating dance.

you gotta love clownfish!

 

[sea student]

I checked on them tonight when the tank was dark and they were hanging out right next to each other. I'll continue to observe. Thanks for all the help!

 

[hesaias]

No problem! It was rough as a cob watching my clowns fight. If it gets really bad, you can turn the lights off. I wouldn't do it much, but once and a while is okay.

When mine went through the change, I had an anemone. The dominant one would sometimes make the submissive one sleep on the sand. Kicked out of the bed! Mostly they slept next to each other.