Bought two lightning maroons yesterday.. didnt work out

[hotelbravo]

I bought two small juvenile lightning maroons yesterday from my lfs and before I could even get them out of the bag they were fighting to the death both looking mangled and torn. I ended up acclimating one to my tank and keeping the other in the bag and drove to the lfs to return it.

omw to the store I did some searches and came to the conclusion that even at the tiny .5 inch size the maroons are they will try to fight each other almost every time. so that means I have to get a much much larger maroon to try to pair with this small lightning.

so my question. would this maroon be fine by itself in my sump for a month or two until I can get a large maroon to pair it with? I don't want to transition to female if it is even possible at its current size of .5 inch.
and how large should the clown be that I am trying to pair with it? 2 inches? 3 inches? larger???

[davocean]

This is a tough one, because if they are that small they should both still be male, and that should not have gone that way, but maroons can be fussier to pair than most.
You could try a larger, but IME once they are fighting for dominance they may already be morphing.
Either way intro in a breeder net box or similar to observe first, sometimes even a couple/few days is needed, and know that they still may reject a mate even if both are opposite sex.

[aznflyfisherman]

Lfs should know better then to put two clowns in the same bag when purchase. This happens a lot more then people think. I would contact the lfs for replacement if they die. I would be ****...good luck...i always tell the sales person to put all my clowns in separate bags no matter what they say.

[aznflyfisherman]

Those lightning clowns are awesome, hope they will recover. I want a pair too but cost too much.

[FishN00b83]

I bought two ocellaris clowns last friday but I really wanted the two lightning clowns they had. Unfortunately the wife was with me and wanted "the staple" clownfish because you have to have them in your tank. The lightnings looked so damn cool.

:hmm6: i mean :love1:

[pfan151]

I'd try using a divder to keep them separated in Qt and see if one accepts being the subordinate. If the LFS won't let you return one you could maybe try pumping one full of food for a few months and feeding the other sparingly to try to get a decent size difference.

[hotelbravo]

Well I already returned one of them. The winner actually I kept the one who ended up submitting.

[pfan151]

Well I already returned one of them. The winner actually I kept the one who ended up submitting.

You might have gave up too soon if one looked to submit. The original lighting took a very long time to pair.

[hotelbravo]

You might have gave up too soon if one looked to submit. The original lighting took a very long time to pair.

The one that submitted is very badly beaten and I worry it's not going to survive. I think I intervened to late because the other maroon had this one pinned to the bottom and was not backing off.

[Cliving1]

Hats off to you for standing up and keeping the little guy. I hope it makes it through.

[Mad Marine]

Keep one in an 'Aquamedic' fish trap (lots of space in there) for 2-4 weeks. Place as close to anemone hosting the other clown. That should work.

[ginpang]

When I successfully paired Gst maroons it was with a 3"+ and a 1 1/2"...
if I were you I'd go with a big one...


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[hotelbravo]

I ended up getting a large gold bar to pair with the tiny lightning maroon.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ke-2VQ57izU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

It is a wild caught gold bar, bought it almost a month ago shortly after posting this thread. Idk if it's still new or not but this goldbar is very mild mannered haven't seen any aggression towards anything

[Cliving1]

Wow checkout the size difference on those! Good luck I hope it works out

[jah hoeva]

That's a big girl. Looks good tho!

[oahureefer]

Personally unless you can get a large female within 2 weeks I would just wait til your lightning grows. Maroons are mean and will fight to the death even when out matched. I would question if your lfs really knows anything at all about their trade if they put two maroons together.

[hotelbravo]

I'm pretty confident that this pair will end up working. The female is so much larger and very mild mannered.