Bigger clownfish = male?!

[steviejitsu]

Question here!

 

I picked up a small b/w clownfish, hoping to get it to pair with my ~3 year old b/w clown. My clown is about 2.5-3 inches, and the new one is ~1.5 inches (considerably smaller).

 

Now...the bigger one, who I thought was a female tried to nibble twice or three times (slowly) So I went..well..he'll stop after a while (hopefully)

 

THEN!! all of a sudden I see my big fish showing submissive behavior...The small one did not fight back at all, and was just swimming casually...

 

it's really weird....my old one is significantly bigger (probably 3 times the body mass of the new one) and is looking more like a male to me...

 

has this happened to anybody?

[GT AQUATICS]

the fish that is the most aggressive is the fish that will become, or is a female. The female is the larger of most of the clown species but not all

[steviejitsu]

But the smaller one that I just introduced was running away from my old big one's bites, and did not retaliate at all. It was even running away from my firefish (tiny). Just figured it was really odd....

[MitchReef]

Nope, the males are the total submissives....Momma not gonna take no CRAP from nobody!!!!!

[RyanR1212]

bigger clownfish are females.

[steviejitsu]

It's just TOTALLY weird seeing a fish that's like three times as big as the smaller one being submissive..

its like

 

<>< *getting used to the new tank*

 

<>< submissive, twitching below following the new baby around

[cheryl jordan]

Both females and males will shake. The general rule is that the male (smaller) will shake to show submissive behaviour to the female. But both will do it for what ever clownfish reason. The larger one, your old clown is most likely the female, the odds are she will start displaying more dominance. Clownfish have a body language all their own.

[steviejitsu]

 

Don't know how to embed videos here, and please ignore the beginning where it goes black...dropped the phone <.<

 

I'm probably just assuming here...I mean what are the chances of big one being the male

 

Just weird never seeing the small one twitch or big one following my small one around everywhere xD

[cheryl jordan]

The chance it is now a female are larger. Any time a clownfish is left without another clownfish for an extended period of time it will become the female, the key word is extended. As long as they are not fighting and one fish is not being bullied they will work it out. I have a pair of B/W misbars and they are the same size, and rarely the female will shake at the male if he gets in her way when feeding. She will actually grap his fin in her mouth and physically remove him from the area.