How Quickly Does Male Ocellaris Become Female When Female of Pair Disappears?

[Kengar]

I am shutting down my system, and trying to pull fish to sell them.

I have three ocellaris clowns, two that were together for 6 or 7 years, one (a DaVinci) that was added maybe two months ago that started hanging with the original two when it's "partner" disappeared. The two originals were paired and had spawned many times, with eggs hatching out into fry (never captured or reared, but live hatching and swimming).

I managed to catch and pull the female the other day (two days ago), and it's in separate tank. However, I have not managed to catch the other two yet -- in particular the original male. What I'm concerned about is the male morphing into female so quickly that when I catch the remaining two and put all fish together, there will be two females that fight each other. The DaVinci has already been doing the milting shimmy around the other ocellaris, so I'm concerned/wondering whether the male already may have started to morph into female.

Thanks for input.

 

[Bryce M.]

I'm following curious myself, my pair took a few weeks, but it was like 3 days in I noticed that one was taking over