Pairing Maroon Clowns

[SkullV]

Well I went out today and bought a small 1" male gold stripe maroon to hopefully pair with my 3.5" female gold stripe. At first all was well and I had the new male in a breeder net which I was going to daily move closer and closer to the "home base" and the female would periodically try and attack the net.

This is where the issue came into play. THE STUPID MALE JUMPED THE NET! so now I had this female tearing up this male (whose fins are now in tatters). Once I noticed that this happened I immediately caught the first one I could and put it in the breeder net (this time the female).

My question now is whether or not I should try and catch the male and put it in the net instead of the female, or leave the female in and let the male have a few days to establish it's territory? The female also seems to have lost a cheek spine in the whole ordeal. Will this grow back or will my baby be down a spine for the rest of its life?

 

[SkullV]

Female Currently in Prison:

Tattered Male:

 

[MelloW33]

Wow, she got him good! What size is the tank?

I've experimented many times with pairing up clown fish, including maroons, using egg crate to separate the tank. Try cutting a piece of egg crate to divide the tank and give the two a couple weeks to look at each other and get used to having someone else in the tank.

 

[SkullV]

Double.

 

[SkullV]

Tank is a 55gal. They are going to go in a NC24 together (just them) if I can get them to pair. I figured it would be better to try to pair them up in the larger tank.

 

[SkullV]

On the plus side, the little Male is out from behind the rocks now and sleeping in the open water.

 

[SkullV]

This morning the male is out and about like nothing ever happened. When he swims close to the breeder net the female doesn't even care, should I take this as a good sign? I think I will try and release the female again tomorrow after giving the male a couple days to scope out the tank.

 

[Gold Stripe]

Need to get te male back in the net and let the female out. You dont want the male to "establish his territory" or he will never submit to the female. Its her home. He needs to understand that or he will fight to the death.

 

[SkullV]

Need to get te male back in the net and let the female out. You dont want the male to "establish his territory" or he will never submit to the female. Its her home. He needs to understand that or he will fight to the death.

Alright, the female is out of the net, and the male went to his hiding spot, fighting insured, but I caught the male and he is now in the net. What should I do from here, it seems like as long as one fish is in the net the other ignores it. I was hoping that the female would be more interested about attacking the net allowing the male to show submissive behavior.

 

[SkullV]

anyone have any other ideas about how i should go about this? They ignore each other when one is in the net but the second anyone is let out of the net it is an all out war.

 

[Arc Katana]

Keep the male in there for a couple days. Its a process of acclimation with them. Or if you want a better chance to pair them up - get a couple smaller ones, let the female pick which one she likes, and return/resell the others.

 

[SkullV]

Keep the male in there for a couple days. Its a process of acclimation with them. Or if you want a better chance to pair them up - get a couple smaller ones, let the female pick which one she likes, and return/resell the others.

The female completely ignores him when he's in the net though. Either way i'm going to leave him in there so the fin tears can heal a bit, but i'm worried that she just doesn't care until he is released

 

[katarina]

I saw somewhere about putting the male in a clear plastic jar that is covered in holes and putting it right up against the anemone that is hosting the female. The female gets really mad about the male being in her anemone but hopefully eventually she doesn't care. If she continues to attack the jar don't let the male out, take it back and try another male. The post even had pics. I am 80% sure I saw it on this forum.

 

[SkullV]

Yep, I saw it too, and what do you know, that is EXACTLY what I did tonight. He actually got out of the net when i was trying to catch him but i think the female was sleeping because she didn't give chase....either that or things are going well...

 

[katarina]

lol. Oh, good. I found a page with similair pics but I couldn't find that original posting. Good luck.

 

[SkullV]

lol. Oh, good. I found a page with similair pics but I couldn't find that original posting. Good luck.

Those are my pics, as of about 20 minutes ago :spin1:

 

[katarina]

poor little dude. How long are you planning on leaving him before you try letting him out? If I was a clown fish I REALLY wouldn't want to be a male maroon one. They get the crap beat out of them.

 

[katarina]

The pics I found are on here...http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=215098&page=11

 

[SkullV]

Yeah, I'm just hoping that it isnt too late for this little guy. I know it takes almost a year for their stripes to turn yellow, so this little guy could just be a really little girl. I'll give them 2 more "dates" and if neither of them work it is going back to the LFS. At that point i'll make a judgement call whether to buy a juvenile (stripes still white) or sell my current female and get a bonded pair. No matter what I know I want GSMs.

 

[SkullV]

PROGRESS!!! The little one in the jar started showing "epileptic" submissive behavior today, but interestingly enough when the little one would try and "attack back" through the jar the big one would show the behavior too.

They are still doing attacking but I have hope now that this pair may work out!