Pair of clowns fighting over anemone...please help! :(

[Paul227]

hey everyone,

i have got a E. Quadricolour in my 200L aquarium, i have been waiting for ages to see some A. percula clowns come through the doors at work as oppose to the usual A. ocellaris.

I picked up a pair of wild caught perc's on tuesday.... the female is about 5cm and male is about 1.5cm.

Tuesday Night: Male and female looking happy but right up the top of my aquarium, hiding around my over flow box.

Wednesday Night: same as above
Thursday Morning: Female has done the split and gone exploring, the male still hiding around the overflow box
Now: Just got home from work, female is living very hapily in the anemone, the male looked lost, still around the overflow box, i slowly brought him into the open with the net, then he turned to swim back, but the he must have seen where his misses went, and charged towards the anemone...

now the male wants to join the bubble tip party but the female keeps attacking him when he tries to get in...any ideas??

i considered containerising him night near the anemone, until she calms down, but don't really want to interfere in the wrong way. Im trying to get a video to youtube, and i will link it once i remember my youtube password :s,
cheers, Paul

 

[Paul227]

hmm just thinking, when I say they are a pair, what i mean is they were collected from the same anemone, if this is the case, is it possible i have say a mother and a daughter from a family of clowns, now they are fighting for who will become the male and who will stay female?

 

[Korrine]

um... if the lil male isn't beat up at all (ex. no torn fins, abrasions on body) then leave them be. They are probably going through a stage after being collected and shipped around the world. The female is a little brat and she will put the male "in his place" as long as she "needs" to. My male can't come to the front of the tank or go to the top of the tank currently. That's the 2nd stage of pairing according to Joyce Wilkerson. It's when the female keeps them from certain areas in the tank. Yours may be going through another phase like this due to the shipping trauma. Like I said earlier if the male isn't beat up, just leave him be.

 

[125mph]

Common.. My old female clarkii never let the make get near the bta.

 

[BonsaiNut]

Male and female looking happy but right up the top of my aquarium, hiding around my over flow box.

How do you know they are wild caught? Do you have a photo? Wild caught clowns NEVER hang out at the surface of the water - this is a behavior that only develops in captive-bred clowns. If a wild clown hung out near the surface (in the wild), it would be fish food in 5 seconds.

 

[Whip316]

the female is just proving a point that this is her nem and i will let you in it when i allow it. i had several pairs do this and even the male did it for a while to a female. she might relent in a few days or weeks, or never. all you have to do is wait till they sort it out.