Bizarre behaviour?

[reefertom]

Hi everyone,

 

So..

 

Unfortunately over the festive period whilst a friend was watching my tank I lost one of my clowns ( it jumped - lady who was feeding owned a dog so i can only assume it was harassing the tank).

 

Anyhow, the clown I lost was almost certainly the female, far more aggressive of the two, and the other one (currently remaining) was forever displaying submissive behaviour. Both were approx 2 inches. Two days ago I went to get a replacement clown, and by this point the one remaining had been in the tank by itself for 3 days. At my LFS I spent a fair bit of time picking the replacement fish, making sure it was lively, assertive and significantly smaller so that my remaining fish would assume the role of female moving forward. I picked out a fish that is approx 1 inch, perhaps even a shade under.

 

The new fish has been in the tank for 48 hours now. There has been no chasing/squabbling etc, but my existing, significantly larger clown is displaying submissive behaviour, whilst the newer, smaller fish is the certainly the aggressor! I must admit this is the total opposite of how I thought things would pan out. Is this normal behaviour? Or will the larger fish come to its senses and eventually realise that he 'should' be dominant?! I was expecting my existing resident to initially defend 'his patch' - after all he has been in there for a year!

 

Cheers,

Tom

[braaap]

Give it time. They don't change sex over 3 days but in a few weeks the larger of the 2 should assert itself.

[Clown79]

Agree. It takes more time for them to find their roles.

 

The new one may only be acting aggressive due to its new environment

[reefertom]

OK great cheers guys, i'll keep an eye on things