Firefish Pair question

[SMS76]

If i buy two and introduce them at the same time, will they pair up? Do they change sex or they born as male and female? If so is there any noticable difference between male and female?

 

[snorvich]

Basically, if you buy two, you will eventually have one.

 

[Fairy Wrassler]

I have paired decoras, but not magnificas. If you get it wrong they will tell you in about 15 mins - by smacking the crap out of each other - if you get it right, they are happy long term. There is no real way to tell male from female (that I could find) so it is for the most part touch and go.

YMMV

 

[Amphiprion]

The firefish are dioecious (or gonochoristic), so they will not change sexes. It is best to buy a pair to begin with.

 

[Triggerfish]

i had added two(both male i believe) a month or so apart that were doing well together.
although 1 has disappeared..so not sure what may have caused that..could have been a result of aggression i never noticed.

old link here.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=692691&perpage=25&pagenumber=2

 

[snorvich]

Incidentally, I agree with buying a pair as a requirement for both surviving. However, most distributors to LFS often denote pairs just because they are the same type. They may or not really be pairs.

 

[SDguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8035716#post8035716 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by snorvich
Basically, if you buy two, you will eventually have one.

Or you can get lucky, like I did, and end up with two that paired up.

 

[SMS76]

So is there a way to figure out male and female?

 

[Triggerfish]

this was mentioned to me by someone before:

"You can tell by there large pennant the male has a slightly smaller one in front of the larger one."

 

[Amphiprion]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8050030#post8050030 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Triggerfish
this was mentioned to me by someone before:

"You can tell by there large pennant the male has a slightly smaller one in front of the larger one."

I have never heard of this before and I don't believe it is entirely accurate. Even ichthyologists don't assign sexes to individuals of these species in the wild (i.e. non preserved).

 

[zimreef]

Bought a couple of orange firefish (decora) imported and sold as a pair which seemed to get on well for the first 8-10 weeks in the tank and then overnight "fell out".

There was definitely a dominant fish - the subdominant kept out of sight, behind the rockwork most of the time and when it appeared was harrassed although not really damaged. Ended up returning the dominant one to the LFS and the second one is now out and about 100% of the day.

So reckon even buying a "real" pair is no guarantee of success.

John

 

[snorvich]

Sold as a pair does not really mean they ARE a pair. It simply means your LFS sold you two rather than one. Getting a true pair is more of an accident than not.

 

[Fairy Wrassler]

I am very dubious of any claim to be able to sex these fish - I have not heard of anyone being able to. The "pennant" claim is a totally new one on me.