Risky business - Percularis

[SPARTAN VI]

So I decided on my latest reefing endeavor, I'll try to pair a percula and an ocellaris. It's been done before, I've been keeping clowns for little over 2 years, so I'll give it a shot.

Picked up a black & white ocellaris, then two weeks later, I found a beautiful true perc. Unfortunately, the new perc was a little larger than the ocellaris; I know, not the best combination for any pairing attempt, let alone this scenario. For the past three weeks, the true perc decided he (or perhaps she) wanted to be the female and started going after the little ocellaris.

Until recently, it's been the typical power struggle; percula nips ocellaris, ocellaris turns sides ways and quivers/dances. And now, I'm noticing the ocellaris behaving differently, he's fighting back! Perc comes and bites, he bites back, until the perc finally leaves him alone. Poor little ocellaris' fins are noticeably frayed and he's been cowering in the corner.

The puzzling thing is they sleep together at night. Such an odd couple.

Anyhow, I'm not sure how much longer I can go with this experiment. The ocellaris is getting beat up and it's been about 3-4 weeks that they've been together. I've since caught the offending perc and placed him in an in-take refugium to allow the b&w ocellaris to recuperate. Might trade the perc.

What do you guys think?

 

[davocean]

I think you're learning what alot of us preach from our own past experiences, don't mix clowns or keep more than one pair.

 

[SPARTAN VI]

Oh definitely know about mixing clowns, but this has been done and even shown to pair. This can't be said of other mixes.

 

[Boundless]

Even though I have no experience with clowns I find that sleeping with a person who bullies you is a definitely a no no, but for these clowns i guess they don't care.:lol:

 

[davocean]

Ah, read too fast, thought you were adding a an occ to a pair of percs, sorry, need to have coffee b4 posting!
Is my memory correct in that Sanjays photons are a perc and occ paired?
I think so.

 

[SPARTAN VI]

Could you repeat that last part dav?

Ill post pics shortly. After visiting the lfs we bought the occelaris from, Im not even sure if my occ is an occilaris. They had them labelled b&w perculas. Some of the markings looked like true perc markings, but ours look like ocellaris.

 

[SPARTAN VI]

Okay, here they are together. They usually hang out all day.

Does the b&w look like a true perc or ocellaris to you guys? The markings are quite thick enough to look like an ocellaris, but the second bar doesn't quite look like a perc's either.

 

[nikon187]

blacks are occelaris

 

[NyReefNoob]

ive got 2 mis bar true perc's, 2 mis bar black aus occ, and a semi pic all together with no problems, but then again i have alot of nems also

 

[davocean]

ive got 2 mis bar true perc's, 2 mis bar black aus occ, and a semi pic all together with no problems, but then again i have alot of nems also

How long have you had them together?

 

[davocean]

As for OP's question, yeah, that's a black occ.
And I'm pretty sure Sanjay(the lighting guru dude) did breed a black occ and onyx(perc) to achieve his photon clowns, which look awesome.
I saw foster smith was selling them.

 

[SPARTAN VI]

Well I'm reading around the these power struggles can last for months. So I took him out of QT and place him back in the DT. Aggression seems completely random. They'll be hanging out, then all of a sudden he wants a piece of the b&w occ. Or they'll be on opposite sides of the tank and the perc will quickly dive at the other.

Will be checking on them today. No one is home watching them while my gf's on winter break. They've been home alone for about 2 days now.

 

[rbnice1]

I have a perc and a occelaris together. They are not mated but they are paired.

What I did was find a big perc and a really small occ. They have been together a year now.

 

[jt_milstead]

The Black and white is an occelaris.The other clown is a true Percula.
If the B&W keeps fighting back it could eventually become the female, and then you might have a mess on your hands. From my experience B&W's are about as aggressive as Maroons. I wouldnt keep them together any more. Its doable as Davo suggests, but is it worth losing a fish?