ichthyogeek
New member
I've had a pair of clownfish (A. ocellaris or percula, they still confuse me) for about 5+ years now in my parents' 55 gallon display (they've made it quite clear its their tank now). I'm fairly certain based off of size that I have a male and a female, with the female being larger and the male being smaller. The female will infrequently (about once a day, usually around food time) nip at the male, targeting his body, and he'll quickly do the clownfish waggle + submit. Until recently, I thought that they were a pair, and that they would spawn fairly quickly if I isolated them in a 10 gallon tank. Well it's been about 3 weeks (yayyy quarantine), and now I'm beginning to doubt if I ever had a pair in the first place. This is based off of the following observations:
I'm wondering if I instead might have one ocellaris-like female (the smaller one who's loving the pot), and one percula-like female (the larger one who pretends she's a shark by swimming along the surface of the water). They no longer swim together, and don't display the pair bond swimming I would expect to find. I've tried counting the dorsal rays and it's left me very confused and wishing I had some clove oil/MS2-22 so I could just sedate them and count in peace. I've also tried looking at their eyes, but they both seem fairly dark to me. I do a 50% water change throughout the week (aiming for about 1 gallon/weekday), and feed heavily with a diet of formula one pellets, frozen pureed shrimp in agar agar, and mysis shrimp at least twice a day. My end goal is to try my hand out at raising clownfish, from egg to juvenile.
- They don't sleep together, with the male in a terracotta pot (there's ample space since it's a 4" pot), and the female outside of it
- They have very different swimming spaces, with the female pretending she's a shark and swimming along the surface of the water, and the male spending a large amount of time in the pot.
- They don't feed together, with the male being far more feisty about feeding, and the female being much shyer
I'm wondering if I instead might have one ocellaris-like female (the smaller one who's loving the pot), and one percula-like female (the larger one who pretends she's a shark by swimming along the surface of the water). They no longer swim together, and don't display the pair bond swimming I would expect to find. I've tried counting the dorsal rays and it's left me very confused and wishing I had some clove oil/MS2-22 so I could just sedate them and count in peace. I've also tried looking at their eyes, but they both seem fairly dark to me. I do a 50% water change throughout the week (aiming for about 1 gallon/weekday), and feed heavily with a diet of formula one pellets, frozen pureed shrimp in agar agar, and mysis shrimp at least twice a day. My end goal is to try my hand out at raising clownfish, from egg to juvenile.
