clarki clowns pairing, or getting ready to lay eggs

[bjledbetter]

Ive had my big female close to 2 years and my smaller male (im assuming) about 4 or five months im thinking, im not really sure, I had thought they had already established dominance a while back as the smaller one would just sit there and twitch as the female come around and then they got along fine,even sharing the same nem. The last few days they have agressivley been cleaning a rock under the nem. And now tonight it looks like there trying to kill each other. they are both getting side by side and hitting each other with their tails and biting at each other. Both are staying very close to the nem and that rock and most of the time side by side. Are they still deciding dominance or are they mating or am i gonna wake up in the morning to a blood bath? ive never saw them act like this

 

[bjledbetter]

Here is a video if what there doing
[video]http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=p.10200225376706221&type=3#!/photo.php?v=10200225376706221&set=vb.1506540033&ty pe=3&theater[/video]

 

[Trex]

From that video it doesn't look like any aggression, to me, at all. I would be keeping an eye out for some eggs in the near future. I wouldn't count on the first couple of batches making it -- they seem to need at least 2 layings to get the fertilization correct; they will eat the unfertilized eggs.

 

[bjledbetter]

I thought they had to be several years old before they could lay eggs? They are definantly picking that rock clean today and are side by side but are not doing the nipping thing. They also are not allowing anything close to them. I hope they lay soon that would be cool. I would then have to breeding pairs in my tank the blue damsels and the clowns

 

[Trex]

Just from the looks and size, I think that your female is older than 4 years, and your male has a couple of years on it.
This is an old and slightly blurry picture of my old pair -- they were with me for around 10 years when the picture was taken, so you can see
it can be hard to tell age just from size,

With your pair not allowing anything close, I would be surprised if you don't have eggs in a couple of weeks. Don't be surprised if they become a lot more aggressive over the coming months.

 

[RandysReef]

Just from the looks and size, I think that your female is older than 4 years, and your male has a couple of years on it.
This is an old and slightly blurry picture of my old pair -- they were with me for around 10 years when the picture was taken, so you can see
it can be hard to tell age just from size,

With your pair not allowing anything close, I would be surprised if you don't have eggs in a couple of weeks. Don't be surprised if they become a lot more aggressive over the coming months.

Sweet carpet! Awesome color!

 

[bjledbetter]

+1 to the awesome carpet. I'm not sure how old for sure they are just how long I've had them. They come from petco the female about two years ago and the smaller male about a year at most ago. They are both becoming very aggressive and still cleaning tonight and not letting anything within about a foot of there nems. How much more aggressive should I expect them to get? I don't like getting bit every time stick my hand in the tank

 

[Trex]

My pair would draw blood -- my blood. For a period of time I had an 3 stripe damsel in that tank (( 75 gallon )), the clowns were on one side of the tank and the damsel wasn't let out of the opposite corner.

Thanks for the comments on the S. haddoni -- I preferred either my red one or my blue one to that one.

 

[bjledbetter]

Well while I was doing some homework yesterday my clowns were laying eggs. There are probably about 50 or so of the and there kinda spread out. I know that's normal for the first clutch and should improve in clutch size the more they lay. I'm waiting to see if they have any success hatching this set and then the next I may try and raise if there is enough live fry to attempt.

 

[bjledbetter]

Second clutch layed tonight