Decoding Clownfish Behavior

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Hi all, I'm hoping you can help me understand the behavior of my clown pair. About 6 or 7 weeks ago, I bought a pair of ORA tank bred true percs. They were a bit bigger than I anticipated, probably around 1.5" each, and both are right about the same size (one is a tiny bit bigger than the other, but it's really hard to spot).

With my PREVIOUS true perc pairs, there was usually a bit of aggression from the larger, the smaller would do the submissive dance, and eventually all settled down. The male would hang out in the area that the clowns called "home", while the female would explore and be the aggressor.

 

With my current pair, however, I don't have any behavior like this. There has never been any aggression from either clown, EVER. In fact, aside from some exploring, I never see them apart. They swim around together, they hang in the corner of the tank they call "home" together, they come to the front of the tank and beg for food like pigs together, they sleep together, the works. However, there was never any aggression/submission behavior. Oddly enough, I have noticed both clowns performing the submissive dance to each other at different times, but it's always isolated and never appears to be in response to the other fish doing it. I've never seen one doing it more than the other, if that makes sense.

 

So I guess my question is what does this behavior mean? Have the clowns "paired"? I don't really care about them breeding, I just am curious to tell who is the alpha female if there has never been any aggression.Here's a pic

 

Thanks for reading! Here's a pic

 

[Laybackk]

I would assume they just haven't decided who the dominant is yet and are both still in the "juvenile" or neutral phase. Being that they're the same size, I guess they are both neutral still.

[ReefWeeds]

I have a pair of daVinci clowns - the female is about 3x the size of the male and funny enough, there are times where the male bullies the female and she will do the submissive dance. most times it's the male doing it, but he owns the toadstool leathers and if he doesn't want her in there, he will chase her out. So who knows. Clowns are crazy But I think it's pretty cool that they seem bonded yet no aggression. Mine were the same way actually (well, I bought them together so they could've bonded prior to me purchasing them).

[chipmunkofdoom2]

I would assume they just haven't decided who the dominant is yet and are both still in the "juvenile" or neutral phase. Being that they're the same size, I guess they are both neutral still.

 

Thanks, I had considered this, but I wasn't sure if this was really possible. I thought that as soon as you put them in, they sort of got to the business of figuring out who's boss, haha.

 

 

I have a pair of daVinci clowns - the female is about 3x the size of the male and funny enough, there are times where the male bullies the female and she will do the submissive dance. most times it's the male doing it, but he owns the toadstool leathers and if he doesn't want her in there, he will chase her out. So who knows. Clowns are crazy But I think it's pretty cool that they seem bonded yet no aggression. Mine were the same way actually (well, I bought them together so they could've bonded prior to me purchasing them).

 

That's interesting to hear.. I wonder what causes such a departure from the "typical" clown behavior. Could just be "clowns being clowns" as you said. Are yours tank bred? I wonder if that has anything to do with the oddities in your (or my) clowns.

[ReefWeeds]

 

Thanks, I had considered this, but I wasn't sure if this was really possible. I thought that as soon as you put them in, they sort of got to the business of figuring out who's boss, haha.

 

 

 

That's interesting to hear.. I wonder what causes such a departure from the "typical" clown behavior. Could just be "clowns being clowns" as you said. Are yours tank bred? I wonder if that has anything to do with the oddities in your (or my) clowns.

 

Mine are tank bread. You could be onto something there!