I've got a pair of CB Occelaris that I purchased when they were 1.5" or so. They were the last two in the store tank when I purchased them last year in January. They've both grown to almost 2" or more and a lot thicker, but don't show the pairing behavior of the clowns in my other tank that were purchased recently and were much smaller. They have established who's dominant and one will sleep in the 2 nems in the center of the tank and the other doesn't care for a nem and just sleeps in the back corner of the tank. The dominant one is only slightly bigger than the other. They do shake at each other and hang around each other periodically, but are separate at least 80-90% of the time. Only other fish I have in the solana is a firefish and small mandarin. I know two females would battle it out all the time, but I'm not sure why they won't pair up. Any suggestions?
Why won't the clowns pair up?
- Thread starter Genghis
- Start date
ocellaris123
Active member
If I were in your shoes I would trade one back and get a smaller specimen. After a year together they should show some indications of being a pair. My pair of Tomatos share the same anemone at night and are always together. If the female goes to one side of the aquarium the male is quick to follow her, which is a definite indication they are a pair (which you already know).
That's unfortunate. I'm very hesitant to take either back since I've grown pretty attached to both of them. Maybe I can try to isolate the feeding to get one a bit bigger than the other so they can differentiate a bit more. Any ideas if that may help? Either way, I'll probably keep at it rather than give either up. They've grown to be very nice looking specimens.
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