Male clown is friend-zoned.

[Gopilosaurus]

I've had my two clowns for about a year. It seems that they have accepted each other and one has grown while the submissive one is still fairly tiny. But, they don't seem to spend a lot of their time together. In fact, it seems that the female is more keen on the domino damsel! (She is submissive to him.) They don't host in anything in particular (no anemones but some corals).

All three of them have been the only constant inhabitants of my 55 since it finished cycling last year. I was wondering if it's normal for the male to be friend-zoned? Could the female and domino be having a cross-species relationship where the male clown is a 3rd wheel? Should I just not be concerned about it? The only other fish is a lawnmower blenny that got out of QT last week.

 

[phender]

I would say, get the domino out of there. If the domino is intimidating the female, you are not going to have any pairing/breeding among your clowns.

 

[Gopilosaurus]

Oh, believe me, I've been trying to get that devil out for 3 months. One month of fish trap, nothing. He'd wait for the crabs to go in and dislodge food. Left nets in there so he got used to them. Tried for 3 weeks, nothing. The nets did pick up a lot of detritus that wasn't getting to the sock though. I even tried fishing for him...He got really good at taking the food off the hook without taking in the hook...Short of tearing down the reef, I'm not sure what else I can do, that bugger is fast and smart!

Most of the time, they are all off on their own. The addition of the blenny did set off a little dominance show this week.

 

[Gopilosaurus]

Ha! I finally snagged that domino with squid and a size 20 fly hook. The people at the pro fishing shop thought I was crazy when I told them what I needed it for. (They asked after I inquired about their smallest barbless hook...) Now he's in the sump until I can get to the LFS to trade him in. Poor guy.

 

[phender]

I actually had a size 24 hook that I had to use from time to time. Hard as heck to bait a hook that small!
I hope that does the trick for your clowns.