Pairing up Goldstripe Maroons?

J

jcgreen7

New member
Does anyone have experience at pairing up maroon clowns. I know that they tend to be one of the most aggressive of the clowns. I would like find a mate for my maroon that is currently in my tank. I have had him in three different tanks in a time period of a year and a half. He has been the longest resident in my current 75 gal display. There are two bubble tips in the tank and he claims both of them. I have a small marron clown on hold at my local fish store to hopefully match up. My current clown is about and 1 1/2 inches to 2 inches. The clown on hold is roughly 3/4 of an inch to 1 inch.

Anyone with any information on this or any tips or tricks to pairing up maroon clowns would be greatly appreciated.

Justin
 
This might work...

This might work...

Place the new clown in a small breeder tank as near as you can to the current clown's hosting space. She will keep charging at the new clown in the protective tank and then finally stop. It may take several days. When that happens, release the smaller clown to the opposite side of the tank and your clown should keep swimming up to it and darting at it. Finally, the new clown will go onto its side and "shimmy" at the current clown to show submission. The current clown should then begin to allow it into its space. I did this with two in my tank and they are doing great. I had the female about a year when I introduced the much smaller male. You want to make sure it is very small to assure that it hasn't already begun the shift to female or this will never work. Do keep an eye on them when the smaller one is released in case the other does it physical harm. You should then pull it and place it back in the breeder tank and try again. There are pics in my gallery showing them spawning which they now do about every 3 weeks or so. GL, Marcye
 
Re: This might work...

Re: This might work...

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7087142#post7087142 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Me No Nemo
Place the new clown in a small breeder tank as near as you can to the current clown's hosting space. She will keep charging at the new clown in the protective tank and then finally stop. It may take several days. When that happens, release the smaller clown to the opposite side of the tank and your clown should keep swimming up to it and darting at it. Finally, the new clown will go onto its side and "shimmy" at the current clown to show submission. The current clown should then begin to allow it into its space. I did this with two in my tank and they are doing great. I had the female about a year when I introduced the much smaller male. You want to make sure it is very small to assure that it hasn't already begun the shift to female or this will never work. Do keep an eye on them when the smaller one is released in case the other does it physical harm. You should then pull it and place it back in the breeder tank and try again. There are pics in my gallery showing them spawning which they now do about every 3 weeks or so. GL, Marcye
Click to expand...

Yep, that is pretty much how it's done. One thing I would like to add to the above is that it may take a bit more than several days for her to acclimate to him. My male was in the "safehouse" for over three weeks before she would allow him to survive on his own. Now they are doing great...spawning every two weeks or so. Don't get discouraged if she doesn't takt to him right away. Be patient and you will definately enjoy the outcome. =) GL!

Mario
 
I let my new maroon out of the breeder box today (has been in there for three days). Over the course of the three days I have moved the breeder box within six inches of the anemone. Seemed to be doing fine, not really any aggression, just a casual glance and visit. So far though today my female does not seem to want to have the male around. She is not beating him up but she is making sure that he keeps his distance. He is very interested and is taking it slow (what a gentlemen). When he gets close enough for her to approach he shivers his body to show submission, but she continues to bother him enough to push him away. Hopefully over the next few days things will go better. I will just have to keep an eye on them.:thumbsup:
 
please keep me updated. I have a maroon, already turned female. I bought two the same day, but she really was putting the smaller ones life in danger... so i had to return him

I want to try this method
 
Sounds very good. As long as he's being submissive, she should gradually let him closer. GL, ...I'm following along. Marcye
 
My experience is with yellow stripes, but I imagine they're similar.
I had a small clown (<1") for about a month, then saw a nice 2" clown at the lfs. I put them together in the qt tank, so they were both out of their element, so to speak. They hit it off pretty much right away, though the small one was a little tattered by the end of the 4 weeks. They've been in the main tank for almost 2 weeks now, and seem to get along even better. The male does his little submission dance all the time, the female alternates between letting him snuggle right up with her and chasing him away a few inches.
 
when i go0t my gold stripe, i bought two. they had been in a 15 gal for two weeks at lfs.

one was only slightly bigger than the other

immediately the bigger of the two spent its entire day attacking the smaller one... i let it happen for about a week. the lil guy would be submissive, shake, all the good stuff.. but he was getting so abused.

heres what i think i did wrong. I captured the meaner bigger fish and put her in a spagettii strainer for a week. she could see the smaller fish.

the smaller fish healed and picked a comfy place in the tank. I let big fish back out after a week and nothing changed, she constantly bit his fins.

I felt that the little fish was going to be tormented to death... so i returned him and kept the bigger one.

think it would have worked out if i would have captured the smaller fish for a week instead of the female?

Now im waiting for my female to grow another inch or so and im going to try agian. using the methods in this thread.

I hope i have a shot. my girl is a big meanie
 
The male is now back in the breeder tank. Everthing seemed to be going well for the day and half to two days. He seemed to be slowly making his way closer and closer to her domain. At the end of the second day though I noticed that he was missing several chunks from multiple fins. So, I went ahead netted him and put him back in the breeder tank. I will try again in a few days.
If by the second or third try I think I try the method of putting both of them out of their element and into a QT tank with nothing in it and see how that works out. I can only hope for the best. I will try and get pics up as soon as possible. The format that I have them saved to right now is not accepted by reef central.
I will have to fix that first and then work on the size of the file.
 
try rearanging the rocks while they are both out? I heard this worths. Man, I was really hoping this worked for you.... my maroon is the same way
 
I will continue to try to pair them up. I am very stubborn about being successful in my challenges. In the end though if she will not accept him I will return him. I have heard of some people that have had two or three little males being killed trying to pair them up. In my eyes to let it go that far is not right.:thumbdown
 
Sounds to me like you current "female" is really too small and could still be a male. I've only seen one fully grown gold stripe maroon pair and in that pair the male was at least 2". I would return the little one and let the current clown grow out some.
 
i just got back from my lfs and they had a saddleback clown pair. i could not BELIEVE how small the male was!!!!! maybe like 1/6 of the female if he was lucky. He looked like a lil baby!

confooseld.... I had bought two clowns at the same time, one only slightly bigger (the one I kept) she was super dominant/aggressive and the other did the shimmys and stuff. I had to take lil one back because she was eating all his fins. shes been by herself now for a month. if she hasent already, she will evntually turn female right? how long is normal if she isent already?
 
If I were to go the breeder tank method, do any of you think it would help things out if I waited until the lights went out to release the new clown into the tank? My thought there is that my established female wouldn't be as interested in chasing him around if she's getting ready to go to sleep.

Also, one thing I've noticed from listening to stories of unsuccessful pairing is that it always seems to be the more aggressive of the two fish that people keep. Is this just because you figure the injured fish may die on you, or is there another reason. I actually returned the bully after my first failed attempt at pairing. The bullied one healed up just fine, and though she isn't fully grown (maybe 2 1/2 inches), she seems quite docile for a maroon. She isn't even aggressive towards my 6-line who spends almost as much time hanging around my BTA as she does.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7143548#post7143548 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TOURKID
i just got back from my lfs and they had a saddleback clown pair. i could not BELIEVE how small the male was!!!!! maybe like 1/6 of the female if he was lucky. He looked like a lil baby!

confooseld.... I had bought two clowns at the same time, one only slightly bigger (the one I kept) she was super dominant/aggressive and the other did the shimmys and stuff. I had to take lil one back because she was eating all his fins. shes been by herself now for a month. if she hasent already, she will evntually turn female right? how long is normal if she isent already?
Click to expand...
Yes she will a few months with steady food should get "her" to full size when I paired mine the female was about 3.5" and the male .75" I had the male in a little breeder for three hours let it go and they were fine.

And FYI just because the LFS puts together two clowns and declares "pair" status doesn't mean they are one. I've seen a full grown saddleback pair on a local fish club tank tour this summer they were both big and of similar size don't be fooled.
 
island crow.. yeah. basicly I was afraid of the bullied one. i had a complete wipeout after introducing a tang to my tank with no QT. everybody got ick, i started a qt, but was way to inexperienced to make it work. i lost everything.

All i kept hearing was 'stress' caused it. It took me 2 months to find a fish and get the courage to take care of it (hard seeing them die knowing its your fault)
So i did, the 2 maroons. I was scared the bullied would get a disease, i also thought it was already established he was male and the bully was much hardier.. and not so beat up....... I think about why i kept her quite alot. because now i have a 45 gal, and only 1 fish... :D Ill try a pair after she gains an inch or 1 1/2......

confooseld...

wow... if they really werent a pair and they were advertising it.. it would be the last straw. Ive had so many issues regarding theyre ethics and selling sick fish etc..... it really looked juvi to me. the female was real light colored and huge, the male was black.. besides saddle and stripes... grrr.
and this aint no petco either.... i was dazzled by all the pretty stuff.. but after 5 months, im starting to see the dark side.


i heard at the lfs to try getting a maragine container and putting holes in it only big enough for the lil fish, so if its chased/attacked it can hide... whatcha think? sounds logical.. unless it just stays in hiding all the time......
 
The only reason that I would return the smaller of the two is because my larger maroon ( the one I think to be female) I have had through three different tanks in two years including a friends tank who was keeping her for me while my new tank was in the setup process. She is a real trooper.

I do not really trust my lfs. Your best bet is to do your homework!!!!! Cannot stress that enough. This hobby is too expensive to be burned by someone wanting to make a profit. It has happend to me because I bought on impulse without looking into what kind of fish I was buying. Really there is only one lfs that I will go to for livestock and only one person that I will deal with there when it comes to livestock and generally I try to stay away during his days off. Most of the other people there are sincere and nice people but do not always tell you the full truth about the fish or its care recomendations. This happend to me with a copperbanded butterfly. They had him for a couple of days that I knew of, while I was in for something else I decided to get he would be a great addition to the tank for movement and color not to mention personality. Well it ended up he had some kind of fin fungus (not fin rot) through attempting to cure it the stress was to much for him and he died. So I vowed to myself to never purchase anything without doing the research behind the fish or coral. Always, always research.

The only reason that I usually talk only with one person at my lfs is that he is related to a buddy of mine that I work with and through that have become pretty good friends. Weird the connections you make.
 
i have only 1 person i trust at the lfs too. im thinking about expanding my adventures and going to look at a couple more stores around my area
 
I hear that about the LFS. The main LFS I go to, I pretty much trust the owner. Although given a choice, he'll sell you the most expensive of the lot, so far he's never tried to sell me anything I really don't need. The only issue I've had is bad information. I truly think that sometimes he just hasn't done his research, and simply doesn't realize he's giving me bad advice, so there's certainly that to watch out for as well.

Anyway, that makes sense that you'd bring back the smaller guy because he's more likely to contract something or because you've had the other one for awhile. The first fish I bought were two clowns. . .and that's where the bad advice came in. I was sold two juvenile maroons (at least I didn't get sold two females) that were roughly the same size. I had no idea how aggressive they could be, and wasn't warned. If only I'd done my own homework. . .
 
Lets try this again!

Lets try this again!

Well, once again I let out my male to see if my female will accept him. He has been in solitary confinement for a week of so. Hopefully I get lucky this time.

I too agree with the bad information the is received from the lfs. I do not believe that most do this on purpose but either way misinformation is this hobby con end up being fataly expensive.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

G
percula pair
Replies
12
Views
973
griss
griss
R
Alk consumption low tech/coral tank
Replies
9
Views
113
Uncle99
Uncle99
B
Ritteri Swollen Mouth
Replies
8
Views
456
Bakeman
B
A
How to introduce new clown fish
Replies
14
Views
2K
Brian60077
Brian60077
D
Help with new tank cycling
Replies
12
Views
891
wvned
wvned
Back
Top