Clownfish Pairing Behavior

[SeaHorseQueen]

Hi,

I haven’t tried to pair a clownfish in a while. I did read to wait at least 3 days for the new one and the established clown to get used to each other before letting it loose. I know I won’t know for certain if they’ll officially paid until they’re together but how is their behavior to you? He’s been in the breeder box for 26hrs so far. No charging from the fancy so far. It’s kind of been hanging out around the box when not hosting the hammer coral below. Yesterday, the new one did a little submissive wiggles but I haven’t seen it since. I made sure it was smaller than the clownfish I currently have.

Just wondering what you think of their interaction so far.

Please try to ignore the tank. I’m battling GHA again and it came back with some kind of red/green algae that is super hard to scrape off. I just did a water change tonight and scrubbed the algae off and inside the filters.

 

[dloberry]

Watch them closely. They look pretty close to the same size so may fight to determine which one is female. Sometimes that can turn deadly for one of them

 

[SeaHorseQueen]

I released the small one this evening. Nothing overly aggressive. Big one doesn't want the small ones near its hammer yet. They swim around each other and big one nips and bumps the other’s belly (if that makes sense?). I haven’t seen the small one shimmy tonight yet. No injuries to small one so far. So far they’re doing ok. I’m hoping the smaller one shimmies very soon like it did when first put in the breeder’s box. The small one comes up to the big one while it’s guarding the hammer and gets chased from it.

 

[sfin52]

I released the small one this evening. Nothing overly aggressive. Big one doesn't want the small ones near its hammer yet. They swim around each other and big one nips and bumps the other’s belly (if that makes sense?). I haven’t seen the small one shimmy tonight yet. No injuries to small one so far. So far they’re doing ok. I’m hoping the smaller one shimmies very soon like it did when first put in the breeder’s box. The small one comes up to the big one while it’s guarding the hammer and gets chased from it.

How are they now

 

[SeaHorseQueen]

How are they now

So far ok. They’re tolerating each other but don’t swim together like a pair.

 

[sfin52]

So far ok. They’re tolerating each other but don’t swim together like a pair.

That will take time.

 

[SeaHorseQueen]

That will take time.

I’m hoping it it works out. They will come up together for feeding though.