Carpet Surfer.

[HWY61]

Today marks my reef as six months old, it also happens to be the day I lost my first fish. I was having my coffee and looking into my tank when I realized I didn't see the male clown. I peeked around the rocks then opened the lid to inspect the intake. No dice. Finally my heart sank and I realized he had probably jumped. There's a narrow two-inch hole in my lid that doesn't normally seem like an issue, but my clowns decided that was the perfect place to set up shop. I found him dried-up behind the stand.

After a short and shallow burial in the permafrost, I'm trying to figure out what my next move should be. I was already headed to the LFS today to pick up some talbot damsels, should I try and get another clown or just let the female be? From the very little research I've done, I believe she is likely to kill a newly introduced clown. What course of action should I take here?

 

[homer1475]

I'm actually in the same boat! Wife noticed friday my male was missing. Although I have yet to find a body, I haven't seen it alive either.

I'm going to get another, I've done it in the past without problem. Just make sure the new addition is much smaller. There is usually some initial aggression, but they always seem to sort it out as long as the new addition is much smaller.

 

[Zach B]

Sorry for your loss, ironically enough this happened to me this am as well. Our male mocha storm was found behind our tank. Ours has a canopy with barely any space as well. Bad start to a day. I've already ordered a small replacement from Cultivated Reef. I have had success and failure pairing clowns, sometimes it's hit or miss. I wish you the best of luck

 

[Azedenkae]

Today marks my reef as six months old, it also happens to be the day I lost my first fish. I was having my coffee and looking into my tank when I realized I didn't see the male clown. I peeked around the rocks then opened the lid to inspect the intake. No dice. Finally my heart sank and I realized he had probably jumped. There's a narrow two-inch hole in my lid that doesn't normally seem like an issue, but my clowns decided that was the perfect place to set up shop. I found him dried-up behind the stand.

After a short and shallow burial in the permafrost, I'm trying to figure out what my next move should be. I was already headed to the LFS today to pick up some talbot damsels, should I try and get another clown or just let the female be? From the very little research I've done, I believe she is likely to kill a newly introduced clown. What course of action should I take here?

Sorry for your loss.

I would recommend getting another clown, yeah. There is a chance your female might kill the new clownfish, but well, there's also a chance she won't. I feel like eventually you'll want to have a clown pair again, so probably the earlier you get a replacement the better, since you want to get a definite male, and that means a small specimen. So as the female gets even bigger, it'll become increasingly harder.

l mean the other choice is to get a new pair and sell your female or something, but I doubt you want to do that.

 

[BZOFIQ]

It's such a terrible feeling when this happens - I absolutely hate it!

Sorry for your loss.

 

[Marc2952]

Today marks my reef as six months old, it also happens to be the day I lost my first fish. I was having my coffee and looking into my tank when I realized I didn't see the male clown. I peeked around the rocks then opened the lid to inspect the intake. No dice. Finally my heart sank and I realized he had probably jumped. There's a narrow two-inch hole in my lid that doesn't normally seem like an issue, but my clowns decided that was the perfect place to set up shop. I found him dried-up behind the stand.

After a short and shallow burial in the permafrost, I'm trying to figure out what my next move should be. I was already headed to the LFS today to pick up some talbot damsels, should I try and get another clown or just let the female be? From the very little research I've done, I believe she is likely to kill a newly introduced clown. What course of action should I take here?

Same thing happened to me, the male clown decided to jump on a tiny hole. It should be fine to add as long as you grt a smaller clown.

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

My female jumped. Never replaced. i would give it some time as she may not accept an immediate replacement. I’m sure someone who knows more with experience could chime in.

 

[Chuk]

I'm actually in the same boat! Wife noticed friday my male was missing. Although I have yet to find a body, I haven't seen it alive either.

I'm going to get another, I've done it in the past without problem. Just make sure the new addition is much smaller. There is usually some initial aggression, but they always seem to sort it out as long as the new addition is much smaller.

If you're tank is drilled check the sump. That's where my female ended up a few months ago, just hanging out in a filter sock for a day until I found her. She wasn't too happy when i got her out but has been fine since.

 

[HWY61]

Sorry for your loss.

I would recommend getting another clown, yeah. There is a chance your female might kill the new clownfish, but well, there's also a chance she won't. I feel like eventually you'll want to have a clown pair again, so probably the earlier you get a replacement the better, since you want to get a definite male, and that means a small specimen. So as the female gets even bigger, it'll become increasingly harder.

l mean the other choice is to get a new pair and sell your female or something, but I doubt you want to do that.

What if I put both of them in my quarantine tank so there isn’t any established territory?

 

[Azedenkae]

What if I put both of them in my quarantine tank so there isn’t any established territory?

Yeah that could work, if nothing then at least maybe making it easier for you to save the new male if needed.

Honestly though, I would not put too much thought into it. It is easy to go down a rabbit hole of 'what ifs'. What if the female displays too much aggression towards the new fish anyways, should one be worried? What if the female ignores the newcomer completely? And if they do pair in the quarantine, how should they be moved to the display? Would they remain paired?

Unfortunately it seems like science cannot really help here. There are plenty of peer-reviewed publications on clownfish (ocellaris specifically), but our aquariums and the way we care for them are different to laboratory conditions, and different again to wild conditions. I mean, this article for example: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10211-012-0142-0 straight up says there were very few display of aggressions between clownfish of different sexes, and females seem to be quite accepting of non-females in their experiments. Their experimentation is not necessarily wrong, but could just have everything be under different conditions compared to our tanks. I mean, the number of times I saw posts about females killing males say it all.

So yeah. Personally I would just add a new fish into the tank and hope for the best. The reason is because you cannot really guarantee it would work out in a quarantine tank either, and cannot really guarantee whatever results from the quarantine tank remains once the fish are added to the main tank either. I used to work at a LFS, and we used to get paired clownfish in, and they would act like a pair in our hold, but don't always remain as a pair once a customer takes them home for example, so that's kinda interesting as well. There's a lot of theories behind it, but I won't draw this post out any longer. XD Long story short, personally I would just try and let nature take its course, and if it does not work out, well it is unfortunate but also, I am supposed to enjoy this hobby, not spend three hours a day micromanaging what happens.

 

[Mike from TN]

What if I put both of them in my quarantine tank so there isn’t any established territory?

I would definitely get a new Clown. Like everyone said, get a smaller one. If you have an acclamation box, put hin in there for a few days and observe.