Weird Clownfish Shaking

[Liquid1]

I recently picked up 2 clownfish (probably Ocellaris but could be True Percs) from a local fellow reefer. They are probably about a year old and one is bigger than the other so we believe they are starting to go sexual. Today after the evening feeding (frozen mysis), both of the clownfish started doing an intermittent weird shaking type thing, kind of like they were being electrocuted or something. I'm wondering if this is a good thing or a bad thing (or nothing at all ). They are eating great, tank params are really good (PH is a touch high at 8.4), and there are no discernable problems with the fish. Is this some sort of pre-spawning ritual or something I need to be worried about? Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[h2joe]

the shaking you are describing sounds to me like you have a male and a female with the male being submissive to the female by doing the shake. nothing to worry about. sounds like your on your way to haveing a succesfull pairing. good luck

Mark

 

[Avian]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6627943#post6627943 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by h2joe
the shaking you are describing sounds to me like you have a male and a female with the male being submissive to the female by doing the shake. nothing to worry about. sounds like your on your way to haveing a succesfull pairing. good luck

Mark

Exactly.

 

[Liquid1]

Both of them are doing the shaking, maybe they're still working out who is going to be the boss?

 

[Fishboy42]

Could be, but sometimes the female will shake after the male does IME, kind of like a response/acknowledgement of the male's "dance of submissiveness"

-Matt

 

[Liquid1]

Awesome, I'll keep an eye on them. Thank you again for all the help.

 

[BarkingCrab]

My percs are doing the same thing. Curiously, the fish I believe is going to be the female (the larger of the two) does more of the shaking and periodically chases the other fish around the tank.

 

[dwd5813]

yeah that sounds like what i read happens when two fish are working out the dominant/submissive structure. i read that the second, dominant fish will often shake in response to the domination being established

 

[chillaxr6]

i got 1 clarkii clown with an anemone and then went out 3 days later and bought a second smaller clarkii and after 3 days no shaking and my little clarkii was stuck in the corner of my tank . . . everyone was picking on him . . . sniff sniff after 4 days i caught him and put him in a breeder 2 days ago as it was getting rough on the little tike but he started doing a shake thing . . .

should i risk releasing the little guy again or trade them in for another already paired clowns . . .