Jump to content
ReefCleaners.org

Ocellaris Clownfish fighting..


AthenaAndApollo

Recommended Posts

AthenaAndApollo

So I know that my clownfish are trying to establish dominance, because they are both roughly the same size. They have been together in my Fusion 30L for a month now, and they seemed fine until a couple of days ago. I've just added an anenome three days ago, and who I believe to be the female has hosted to it just last night. When I woke up this morning the what I believe to be the male is breathing fast, his mouth open, tail fin has little tiny tears at the end, and he looks exhausted/sick. Is this a normal part of pairing up or should I separate them for a few days?

The female will hang around the anemone and the male stays in one place on the other side of the tank. When I feed, the female will eat and when I go to feed the male, he doesn't look interested on top of the fact that the female will rush over and grab the food. I need my male to eat , he looks really weak right now. What do I do?

Link to comment
Angel<3Nanos

Roughly, how big are they? I have heard that once they mature it is impossible for them to switch sex again. But I've heard many things before.

The occy who got attacked is not normal behavior for pairing up. They usually just figh without damaging themselves.



Also, are there any other fish in the tank besides the occys?

Link to comment
AthenaAndApollo

My livestock includes the two ocellaris, a sleeper banded goby, lawnmower blenny, and a coral beauty. Everyone gets along just fine. When I went to check on everyone just now, the male was laying down breathing heavily on the side of a rock. He looks like he could die any minute now. I put him in a breeder net and I'm going to keep him there for a few days until he gets better, if he gets better. The clownfish are roughly 1", the female is slightly bigger if you look closely. Should I take the male back and get a bigger ocellaris or should I just have her and not try to pair her up again?

Link to comment
Angel<3Nanos

My livestock includes the two ocellaris, a sleeper banded goby, lawnmower blenny, and a coral beauty. Everyone gets along just fine. When I went to check on everyone just now, the male was laying down breathing heavily on the side of a rock. He looks like he could die any minute now. I put him in a breeder net and I'm going to keep him there for a few days until he gets better, if he gets better. The clownfish are roughly 1", the female is slightly bigger if you look closely. Should I take the male back and get a bigger ocellaris or should I just have her and not try to pair her up again?

Have seen any other fish try to chase or nip at your occys?

Pairing up clownfish is always a hit and miss.

Imo what I would do, I would get a smaller occy. Seems like these 2 were females. But again, Idk much of paring up. Maybe someone else will chime in.

Guess I got lucky with mine because they were very small when I had them.

Link to comment
AthenaAndApollo

Update: Who I thought to be the male unfortunately died. The owner of the LFS said that if I were to get a smaller one she would most definitely kill him. None of the other fish have chased or been aggressive towards the two clowns, everyone has their own space in the tank and even when the coral beauty is around my girl's anemone she won't chase her away, and when I feed she loves to come pop air bubbles on my hand. She's not aggressive at all imo. I just don't know whether or not I should try and pair her up again or just leave her be. Another thing I noticed is that a few days ago she began to get darker on her dorsal side, so its like a gradient from an umber colour to bright orange-yellow. She is much more yellow than my male was, but she's definitely an ocellaris.

Link to comment

The fish you want to be a male should be under an inch. Every clown fish pair Ive had the female has been 2+ inches and the male under one inch. When they are that small they pretty much instantly submit to the larger fish.

Link to comment

Never has the happened to any of the fish Ive kept. I see no reason why the larger female would kill an submissive genderless/male clown.

 

You could also remove the larger one(temporally) and let the smaller one get use to the surroundings of the main tank.

But won't the larger one kill the smaller?

Link to comment
AthenaAndApollo

Okay, I'll try that. So I should get one that is less than 1"? I just want to make sure I'm doing everything right, sorry for so many questions!

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...