Yellow Stripe Maroon Clowns. Log...

[Kodiak5500]

Please read it, I need some guidance in trying to pair these clowns.



You may have read my other threads about my first fish in awhile. I have recently purchased two Yellow Striped Maroon Clowns.

*Back round*

I have been in the hobby for a couple years, I have learned A LOT. I have well over 500-600$ of coral in my current 15g nano. I keep the salinity at around 1.023. Ca2 440. DkH 10-12. Temp 78-82. I does B-Ionic every day and have 40 pounds of LR. I have very high flow, and about 6.6 watts per gallon of T-5 lighting.

I havent gotten fish due to past bad experiences. They always seem to be sick, or too expensive, ect.. Biggest reason is coral wont die, the fish can and in my experiences usually did.

*day 1*

I got the two clowns.( 1.25 and 1.75 inches) they came in serpate bags. I put them in a single bucket filled with the water from their bags. I then drip acclimated them for about 10-15 minutes. I then netted each one and added them to the tank, the smaller one first.

They were fighting in the bucket. The smaller one has been the aggressor.

They each found a section in the tank to have as their little territory. I have a lot of caves, corals, and such for them to hide. The smaller one then started chasing and harassing the bigger one.

I shorty turned off the lights and turned on the moon lights and the fighting stopped. ( It wasn't that bad, most of the time they kept to them selfs.)

*day 2*

I got off work and fed them once the lights were turned on. There was zero aggression during feeding. the smaller one would kind of get close to the other, and the bigger one would then get the message and swim away.

Tonight the bigger one has been out and swimming not hiding from the smaller one. He would occasionally get chased but seemed to "semi" fight back not much at all though.

Now the one that was being bullied will swim right up the the aggressor and they will swim circles and "twitch" their rear fins and shake their whole body. They do this for up to 30 secs with no one attacking each other. They will then go their separate ways.

The small one is out swimming while the larger one is hiding some where but will some times come out and do that little dance thing then swim away, what does this mean??

Thanks! stay tuned for updates and pics.

any advice on what to do and what not to do?

[andymh]

There's some pretty good info in the stickies in the 'Clownfish and Anemone FAQ's' under the pairing section that'd be a good read if you haven't looked over it yet.

That should give you a good starting point. ;)

[Mike31154]

I'm surprised that the larger one was being bullied and not vice versa. In any case, the twitching business is a good sign that they are on their way to getting along and eventually becoming a bonded pair. Plenty of hiding places is a good thing so that they can take a break from the scrapping but it already looks as though that will not be an issue much longer.
If I understand correctly you're doing this in a 15 gallon nano? If so, be advised that Maroons are among the clown species that will grow larger, especially the female once they sort out which one is dominant. Not sure a 15 gallon will suffice for the pair in the future.

[Kodiak5500]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13321485#post13321485 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mike31154
I'm surprised that the larger one was being bullied and not vice versa. In any case, the twitching business is a good sign that they are on their way to getting along and eventually becoming a bonded pair. Plenty of hiding places is a good thing so that they can take a break from the scrapping but it already looks as though that will not be an issue much longer.
If I understand correctly you're doing this in a 15 gallon nano? If so, be advised that Maroons are among the clown species that will grow larger, especially the female once they sort out which one is dominant. Not sure a 15 gallon will suffice for the pair in the future.

I plan on a 90 gallon breeder for the Maroons. 60'' long I believe. I plan on loading it with aenemes (spelling?). I will then try to add several more clowns. I should have the tank running and cycled within >3months.

I read some stickies about the maroon behavior and found some good information I could relate their behavior to. The smaller, dominate one will turn around and shake is dorsal (back fin?) fin at the larger submissive one while it shakes his whole body. The submissive one will then "nip" at his mouth, which I read is like kissing his queen. It looked like they were trying to rip each others faces off.

On the third day, (today) they were acting as I stated above. The dominate one has explored most of the tank while the submissive one rarely comes out.

they dont seem to be fighting all the time. They dont really fight during feedings either.

[Kodiak5500]

Tonight was a bad night for them. The dominate clown was chasing the other relentlessly. The submissive one was not shaking his body, he was however swimming for his life.

It occurred during feeding. Why the sudden change in behavior

[andymh]

If the one's not willing to be submissive, he's most likely going to get the wraith of the other one. You could try putting the more aggressive one in a breeder net box so they'll get a little used to each other and see if that'll help.

[jc9394]

Both may be a female. I just did a GSM pairing myself. What I did is get a fairly large GSM and let her in my tank for roughly 6 months and she grew to around 3". I went to my local LFS and get a smallest GSM I can found, around 1" and bought a specimen container too. I put my new GSM into the container and place it near the female host for around 5 days before I release him out.

During the new GSM in the container, the female attack it like no tomorrow for the first couple days and subdue the aggressive to swim next to the container on day 5. Now they never fight and sleep in the same RBTA but still do now swim next to each other all the time. I heard it takes up to a month for them to bond.