Clownfish not pairing...thoughts?

[BroccoliFarmer]

Ok. Here's the backstory. I got two clown fish about 11 months ago. One designer Black Storm and a regular 'non designer'. They paired up pretty quickly. The BlackStorm became the female. On an impulse, I bought an additional baby BlackStorm. The dominant female continually chased the newbie to the other side of the tank whenever the newbie got on the left hand side of my 4foot tank. About a month and a half ago, my male normal clown disappeared. Dont know how or why or where..but poof. gone. I was under the impression that the non sexed clown would then become male and pair up with the dominant female. Although the female no longer chases the new clown away, the new clown stays in it's old territory on the other side of the tank. Kinda cute how the female seems to keep trying to beckon the new clown over but he always goes to the other side of the tank at night and most of the day.

now my questions:

1. Normal? obviously it is, but i thought these fish were programmed and the pair would almost instantly happen.
2. If they dont pair up and form the bond, i was debating on just getting another juvenile clown and let it pick which side wins. Obviously the big concern is that the juvinile chooses the new clown and the new clown goes female and the two females start battling.

Anyway..perplexed. Side note, neither of them have gone ANYWHERE near my BTA. GRRRRR

 

[blaxsun]

Clowns are stupid. They'll home everything in the tank but the BTA... I say give it time and wait it out to see if they'll pair up - or keep adding nemos until you hit critical fish mass...