Need a clownfish

[Spyderturbo007]

So for some unknown reason, my female clown died over the weekend. Normal diseases have been all but ruled out and the other fish don't show any signs of infection / disease.

Anyway, I was advised by the ever so helpful Mr. Tuskfish (Thanks again!) to ensure compatibility between my current male and whatever clown I purchase. He said they have to be the same species, but to be honest, I don't even know what species I have.

They were labeled as Black Ice Snowflake clowns when I bought them. You can see pictures here if that helps, but Clyde is mostly black where he was orange in this picture.





The male, who is left, is very small. He is only about 1" long. I was told that since he is all alone :sad:, we will start to become a female. So I'm unsure of what I need to get. The new clown I purchase will be in QT for 4 weeks if that makes any difference as far as sex goes.

It would probably be a minimum of 5 weeks before the new clown would make it into the DT.

Thanks!

 

[FishNutty]

First off, really pretty clowns! They look like Occ. to me, but that's just a wild guess, I'm not that great with clown species.
As far as genders go, if the current male is alone for the four weeks the new one is in quarantine, it's going to turn into a female.
That being said, while in quarantine, the new one will also go female.
So, my suggestion would be a) leave him along or b) get three, quarantine them together, and put your favorite with the male/soon to be female. The other two, put in another tank, resell, etc. The reasoning behind three is that even if one comes out on top in the four weeks and is starting to go female, you'd still have two, and a backup should anything happen so you don't have to start again.
Just my two cents! Hope that helps!

 

[Spyderturbo007]

So they turn female that quickly? It sounds like there is no way for me to pair one up with the current male unless I skip the QT process? I really want a bonded pair.

 

[cet98]

if your set on QTing (a process I have personally never done) then why not QT them together? did you QT the original pair?

 

[Spyderturbo007]

I did, for 4 weeks. Then for some unknown reason, the female died after being in the DT for over 2 months. Where is a good place to get another clown? Will any clown labeled as a snowflake work?

 

[aandfsoccr04]

You have occelaris clowns. The patterns are all so varied that it's hard to tell you where to get your next clown. I'm a very very big supporter of QT and I think it would make sense to just QT your male with the new clown. A snowflake will work as long as it is proplerly labeled. I don't know how much you spent on your pair but I think you're looking at spending at least 100 bucks on a new one. Places that I would check daily or at least talk to is Bob at ibluewater. He gets in a lot of clowns and has nice stuff. I'd look at Doni who produced the snowcasso clown in NC. I'd also check divers den daily as they post WYSIWYG pairs of clowns everyday. It might be best to sell yours if you find a clown pair you really like unless you're very attached the single one you have.

For example:
http://www.liveaquaria.com/diversden/ItemDisplay.cfm?c=2733+3&ddid=179467

http://www.liveaquaria.com/diversden/ItemDisplay.cfm?c=2733+3&ddid=179041

 

[cet98]

Where is a good place to get another clown?

where did u get your original pair from? personally I would look for a local breeder (that's how I got my two pairs) as I prefer to observe my fish first hand.
Do not know prices in your area, but in mine Snowflakes sell from around $40 and up...

 

[Spyderturbo007]

I got the original pair from my LFS, but I'm not a huge fan of their livestock. They seem to have a lot of dead fish in their tanks and I haven't had very good experiences with their fish.

I paid $149/each for them. I really don't care about price and it won't influence my decision.

The ones I see on DD always seem to be a pair and I'm attached to Clyde, as is my wife. Well, I guess he might not be Clyde very long.

Wouldn't I stand a chance of shocking Clyde by putting him in QT after being in the DT so long? I thought that since the new female might be aggressive towards him that if he was in the DT that would give him room to get away. But, as pointed out, that would mean that I would have to forgo the QT process.

 

[aandfsoccr04]

You're going to have to ask hastily if you want to try and keep him as a male. I'm not sure where you're going to get a single clown from though. There is also no guarantee that they will pair up. Remember, clowns are damsels so they are relatively hardy. One time in Qt my tank water got up to 90 degrees and the clowns lived through the night with it. I'd recommend either getting a new pair and selling clyde on your local forum or get a single clown, occelaris of course, and putting them both in QT for a month or so.

 

[Spyderturbo007]

I sent iBlueWater an email yesterday based on your recommendation and Bob called me back last night. He said that I have as little as 9 days before Clyde begins to become female. He is going to check and see if he has any females that are ready to go right now and get back to me.

If not, I'm going to wait about 2 months for Clyde to become female and grow a bit, then get a male and QT them together.

What are my chance of them pairing up? My wife and I tend to get attached to our fish, which is why I have no desire to get rid of him and she wanted to try and keep him as a male. But if that latter isn't possible, I really do want to keep him.

 

[cet98]

wow!...only 9 days??!!!....out of curiosity, how old is Clyde?
I was of the impression that only physically mature males would turn female...at 1" I wouldn't think Clyde is mature...
but since I'm no expert I'd love to hear from those more knowledgeable

 

[Spyderturbo007]

I have no idea how old he is to be honest. I purchased them in September, but they were in the store for about 2 months before I decided to buy them. So he is at least 7 months old.

He told me that Clyde will become female anywhere between 9 and 45 days from when the female is removed or dies.

 

[ernieq]

A friend of mine gave me his ocellaris clown which he had kept by itself on a tank before he had to move to another city. He had the clown for at least 1 year and was about 2 inches when I got it from him. Two years later he was the male to my ocellaris which had been on my tank no less than 6 years and was 3 inches long. So I don't know how accurate the 9 day timeframe is, maybe that is the case on a fish that had already spawned and lost it's mate and there were immature males waiting around. I serioulsly doubt that any fish under 1.5 inches would be a female unless it had some sort of growth issue. The oldest clowns on my growout are just about 7 months old and the bigger ones have just reached the 1.75 inch mark. The information I've read says sexually mature anywhere from 9 to 15 months. I would tend to believe the latter.

I think the only way you can be assured of a pair is to get two juvis around 1.5 inches and let them grow and sort it out. I know I have an adult female, since clowns only go one way (male to female), but I'm thinking the only way I can get her a mate is to just put another clown under 2 inches and see where it goes.

 

[ehaleyjr18]

They are called buckshot premium snowflakes. I have them, but they are very expensive as well as beautiful. You can get a smaller single fish that would be a male to your larger fish that would become a female. No guarantee that they will pair up. Usually when you introduce a single fish it is picked on by all older larger fish. Hope this helps.

 

[bnaef17]

Wow some nice fish on ibluewater but the prices are astronomical! Am I missing something?

 

[ClownfishSushi]

Hey, sorry to hear about your loss. I sent you a PM with some info that you had requested but I wanted to toss out some general info that I thought could benefit everyone reading along.

Based on that picture we can't verify if those are Black Ice Snowflakes. They clearly carry the snowflake gene but until they color up it's going to be difficult to figure out their true lineage.

You had asked me about a female Onyx. I do have one available but she is Percula varient. Black Ice Snowflakes get their black from a Black & White (Darwin) Occellaris clownfish.

Perculas and Occellaris can be paired up. In fact, it's a common practice. You've probably heard of the offspring of this pairing... a Percularis.

I believe Dr. Sanjay's famous Photon clownfish were Percularis.

Depending on how old Clyde was in that picture I think you've got a couple weeks before you need to worry about him changing. If you still would like to pair him with a female C-Quest Onyx, we can make that happen. I've had several customers pair my onyx with occy varients with great success.

 

[Spyderturbo007]

Here is picture of the surviving male who has colored up significantly since I got him. The female was never as black, but she colored up more as well.

Sorry for the crappy picture, my wife took it with her phone.



I have a picture of Bonnie when she died, but it makes me sad to look at :sad2: so I'm not going to post it unless it's needed for identification of species.

 

[la1fan]

Sorry to hear about Bonnie. =( Such a pretty clown, good luck with finding him a mate.

 

[bshow24]

I purchased a clown pair that had paired up at before 6 months old, and even though the female was maybe just over an inch, you could easily see the size difference between male and female. My male clown actually jumped out of the tank one night (now have a lid to prevent this...) and I was able to order a new one and get him in with the female in a couple days. Now my situation was a bit easier, I just needed another male, but it is possible that the clowns will pair up. For mine, I put them both into the QT, but only used a 5 gallon QT. This meant that there was not a lot of room for them, and they had to get along! well, it worked for me. So maybe if you get another female or wait for clyde to become clydette, you can introduce into a smaller QT and see if they will pair. Since you would be introducing clyde/ette to a new environment, he/she would not be territorial about it and would not go after the new clown, and vice versa.

I honestly do not believe age is an issue. Yes, age has to do with when they will start spawning, but I had a 3/4 inch male juvenile doing the clownfish shimmy with the female the day they went into a QT. And with having 4 pairs of clowns throughout my short time reefing, my pairs have always paired up before they were very large or old. I am sure you will find a new mate for Clyde, don't stress it too much