What's going on with my Occ. Clownfish??????

steri

steri

New member
I have one tank bred clownfish (his little partner passed away last week).

Three days ago I went looking for a replacement, and I was told to get one bigger then the one I already had so that they wouldn't fight. The ideology made sense to me at the time because I thought if I bought the big one in a tank at the LFS, that that one would be more grommed to become the female anyway, so it should work.

Anywho, I went to a number of LFS's and found Occ. Percs at one of them (not tank bred. I was informed that this would not cause an issue between the two fish). They looked very healthy, so I bought one I knew was bigger then the one I already had and took him home.

After a 2.5 hour acclimation, I put him/her in the tank. The first two days the two got along great. The new one started eating right away, and yesterday the new one started acting aggressive towards my other one. Why is that? Will this continue or is this just while they determine who will be what as far as sexing? Both clowns are eating, but you can tell that my older clown is a bit scared of the newer one now.

If there is anything I can do, please let me know.
 
They are just getting the domination issue out of the way. Just watch them for another week, they should turn to a normal pair by then.

One will be female. My only question is: Was the one that died the larger of the two? If so, you may have lost the female. If not, and it was the male, you may end up with 2 females. Once they sex, they don't change back.
 
It was my understanding the safest thing in the case of losing a clown is to get one that is not sexually developed yet... That way regardless of what the sex is of the larger clown you wont have any fights...(by putting two females in a tank)

If the (un-new one) is a male and u buy a baby clown... the older clown will become female before the baby has a chance to change sex to female...

I've never heard somebody to suggest getting a larger or same size clown... i've only heard that getting a smaller/baby clown is the safest way to go.
 
Originally he was in the tank with a lot of other clowns. When I bought him, there were only two clowns in the tank. I was told the store had the clowns for about a week.

The older clown I have was the bigger of the two in my tank, but he was only in the tank with his friend for a week to 10 days tops.

Here's the thing, I am now on my 4th clown. I originally bought 2 from the same store at the same time. One of those died, and I went out and bought the tank bred one because he was the only one I found when I went looking that time. He was bigger then the one in my tank, but smaller then others in the tank at the LFS. When the 2nd one of my original pair died, I replaced him with the one I got recently, who is bigger then the one already in my tank.

I stopped buying fish from the store where I got my first pair because ever since I bought that pair, every time I go in there their clowns look just awful and they don't eat.

The older one I have does not appear to be fighting back at all. He just seems to take it from the new guy. I don't know what that means.
 
The new one is chasing the older one around the tank very quick like.

The old one runs away to a corner, the new guy leaves him alone for a while, then goes back to teh corner to chase the older one again. Pattern repeats itself regularly. The older one never really fights back. The newer one does not pick at any of the fins or anything that I can see, just chases him around, maybe gives him a bump.

Does any of that make sense?
 
yes makes sense wait to take any clowns out
monitor them and make sure they dont hurt eachoter but it sounds like you have two females
 
Is the older one shaking its tail? If you see that, it is your older showing submission.

But I have the same opinion as GSMguy I think you have 2 females.

I had a clown for about 4 month and we upgrade our tank and add a new clown, smaller. The second day he was shaking it tale and that was the end of the aggression in my tank

Keep us updated
 
Yes, the older one is shaking his tail at the newer one.

Knowing that, does that mean I have 2 females still? If I do, will they be able to live in harmony together? I don't want anything to happen to my older clown.
 
Thnks GSMGuy. I read your thread. The behavior I see does look a lot like those pics. The smaller one of the two is being very submissive of the bigger one, but so far, no real damage is being done to the fish. I will keep a close eye on my fish and go from there. Thanks again, this thread has been helpful!
 
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