Pairing Flame Hawkfish

[MuffsAbby]

I have a flame hawkfish in my DT. She's very young (about 1.5 inches in size). She's been in my DT for almost 2 weeks now, after 6 weeks QT"¦so 8 weeks in total.

I would love to have another, but I'm not sure how to go about it, or whether the time has passed since I didn't buy a "mated pair" in the first instance. If I were to get another, it would also need to go though QT first, whereupon I would have had my existing flame for 14+ weeks in total.

If anyone has any experience in pairing flames "œafter the fact" (i.e., after you've had an existing flame for a few months or more), or has any thoughts on the matter, I'd be very happy to hear from you.

 

[FrogfishFeeder]

I have 3 in my tank, all added several months apart over a year.
You will need one that is significantly smaller than the one you already have.
Your 6wk qt might be a problem as being alone for that long will surely trigger a change to male, I would think.
I treated it like any attempt at pairing clownfish.

 

[MuffsAbby]

Thanks for your response! I know that being alone will trigger a change to a male, but I haven't been able to find anything that says how long that process will take. But, if it could be less than 6 weeks, I can see the problem. I might be willing to reduce QT to 4 weeks this one time, if there were no issues with the new flame, but that's about it. And, of course, one can never tell in advance whether or not there will be issues. Soooo...I'll have to think about it!

 

[FrogfishFeeder]

If its something you really want, id just put both fish in the qt together....

 

[MuffsAbby]

Thanks for the suggestion. I actually thought about that...although that will require catching Sam (my existing flame), and Sam's a slippery little thing! Still, I might try doing just that if I can source another flame hawk. (I'm in Canada and we can't order from LiveAquaria or similar online vendors.)