SupraSaltyReefer: 20 Clownfish Harem and 12 Purple Passion Anemones + RSR 525XL

[Mebeknob]

What's Ryan's Instagram?

@Ryanbrs

 

[mucky1957]

W O W

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

As many know, clownfish are all born male and change genders later in life. The most dominant ones become the females while the others stay males. Each female will pair up with several different types of males (there are two different types, explained later), and create her harem.

Aggression is triggered by the gender swap, a bit of biology explained is that the female is dominant and there are males vying to get that role (these males are often referred to as TM, or transitional males). These transitional males have been dissected and found to possess a higher percentage of female sexual tissue than other MM's (mature males) (MM's almost always possess some fractional amount of female sexual tissue, around 10%), they do still act behave as males however and are fully capable of fertilization, they exist so that if the female dies, one of them can step up to become the new one (often in less than 20 days, far from other MM's which take up to 60 days). In most cases only TM's will be allowed to fertilize the eggs, the other MM's will have to wait until one of the TM's dies or shifts to dominant female.

The MF (mature female) is at the top of the chain and she will bully the TM's to keep them subdued and from become MF's themselves, then the TM's are second, they will bully the MM's to keep them from becoming TM's. The MM's are at the bottom and are the most numerous, they will each be vying to have the chance to shift to a TM, though through harassment will be kept down.

I'm a big clownfish fan, I'm looking forward to see the tank develop. There is a really interesting paper I found once on the subject of clownfish gender change, I'll try to find it for you.

 

[Rispa]

As many know, clownfish are all born male and change genders later in life. The most dominant ones become the females while the others stay males. Each female will pair up with several different types of males (there are two different types, explained later), and create her harem.

Aggression is triggered by the gender swap, a bit of biology explained is that the female is dominant and there are males vying to get that role (these males are often referred to as TM, or transitional males). These transitional males have been dissected and found to possess a higher percentage of female sexual tissue than other MM's (mature males) (MM's almost always possess some fractional amount of female sexual tissue, around 10%), they do still act behave as males however and are fully capable of fertilization, they exist so that if the female dies, one of them can step up to become the new one (often in less than 20 days, far from other MM's which take up to 60 days). In most cases only TM's will be allowed to fertilize the eggs, the other MM's will have to wait until one of the TM's dies or shifts to dominant female.

The MF (mature female) is at the top of the chain and she will bully the TM's to keep them subdued and from become MF's themselves, then the TM's are second, they will bully the MM's to keep them from becoming TM's. The MM's are at the bottom and are the most numerous, they will each be vying to have the chance to shift to a TM, though through harassment will be kept down.

I'm a big clownfish fan, I'm looking forward to see the tank develop. There is a really interesting paper I found once on the subject of clownfish gender change, I'll try to find it for you.

Great information. Thank you for sharing it. I had a general idea of how it worked, but this really clarifies things.

 

[SupraSaltyReefer]

As many know, clownfish are all born male and change genders later in life. The most dominant ones become the females while the others stay males. Each female will pair up with several different types of males (there are two different types, explained later), and create her harem.

Aggression is triggered by the gender swap, a bit of biology explained is that the female is dominant and there are males vying to get that role (these males are often referred to as TM, or transitional males). These transitional males have been dissected and found to possess a higher percentage of female sexual tissue than other MM's (mature males) (MM's almost always possess some fractional amount of female sexual tissue, around 10%), they do still act behave as males however and are fully capable of fertilization, they exist so that if the female dies, one of them can step up to become the new one (often in less than 20 days, far from other MM's which take up to 60 days). In most cases only TM's will be allowed to fertilize the eggs, the other MM's will have to wait until one of the TM's dies or shifts to dominant female.

The MF (mature female) is at the top of the chain and she will bully the TM's to keep them subdued and from become MF's themselves, then the TM's are second, they will bully the MM's to keep them from becoming TM's. The MM's are at the bottom and are the most numerous, they will each be vying to have the chance to shift to a TM, though through harassment will be kept down.

I'm a big clownfish fan, I'm looking forward to see the tank develop. There is a really interesting paper I found once on the subject of clownfish gender change, I'll try to find it for you.

Thanks for sharing the info! I'll share more pics and videos soon.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

I hope it helps, its a really interesting field that I'd love to see more studies in, here is the one I mentioned earlier - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5066260/ I'd really advise taking the time to read it.

 

[SupraSaltyReefer]

I hope it helps, its a really interesting field that I'd love to see more studies in, here is the one I mentioned earlier - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5066260/ I'd really advise taking the time to read it.

Wow extensive article. It'll be good reading material while commuting to work.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Hope you enjoy, there was another that discussed the behavioral shift that came with the change of gender which means that the brain tissue may change a bit, which is really interesting. Couldn't find that one though.

 

[BoBoBREWSKI]

Awesome tank!

 

[Kyl]

*Whops, someone already posted before I read the entire thread. Duplicate deleted.

 

[SupraSaltyReefer]

Tank update. Feeding video was taken on July 15, 2018. It's been 15 days since the harem was introducing into the tank. Everyone is still alive, no signs of aggression, Dominate female and male still have not been established yet. There are 4 larger clowns that I suspect will prevail.

I normally don't feed them live brine shrimp, but thought it would make for a better video than TDO pellets and frozen mysis

Excuse the crappy video quality and color settings, still learning how to use my FujiFilm XT-20

 

[NY_Caveman]

Really beautiful. The activity is truly representative of the ocean.

 

[NoWaiAma]

Tank update. Feeding video was taken on July 15, 2018. It's been 15 days since the harem was introducing into the tank. Everyone is still alive, no signs of aggression, Dominate female and male still have not been established yet. There are 4 larger clowns that I suspect will prevail.

I normally don't feed them live brine shrimp, but thought it would make for a better video than TDO pellets and frozen mysis

Excuse the crappy video quality and color settings, still learning how to use my FujiFilm XT-20

Oh. Em. Gee. Seeing them all dart to their nems like that! How gorgeous!

 

[Johnnyg.]

Update please!

 

[SupraSaltyReefer]

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

[LBReefer]

Merry Christmas everyone!

This is memorizing to watch.

 

[SupraSaltyReefer]

This is memorizing to watch.

Thank you! Your tank build is impressive as well!

 

[Venzzla]

Stunning tank! Clowns still doing good?

 

[choconut74]

Looks amazing! Are all the clowns still ok? Wanting to do exactly this in a RSR250 too.

 

[SupraSaltyReefer]

Wayyyy overdue for a tank update. Reefer 250 is still up and running but clownfish harem project didn't end up working out so well. After the clownfishes matured to about 1.5yr old they started to establish a hierarchy. A dominate female and dominate male paired up. The rest stayed males and started to bully and kill the smallest clownfish. I started noticing missing clownfishes and it was always the smallest clownfish that had torn fins and tail from being bullied. I decided to re-home most of the clownfishes. I still have two groups of three clownfishes paired up. I assume this works since the "3rd wheel" clown is there as a backup in case one of the dominate dies.

On the bright side I moved into a new home and ended up getting a really good deal on a used Red Sea Reefer 525XL. Biggest tank I've owned so far and loving it!!! Here are some old pics of when I was setting it up. Will post more updated pics later.

Equipment list so far:
Red Sea Reefer 525XL
3x Red Sea ReefLED90
2x Ecotech Vortech MP40QD
Neptune COR20 return pump
Aquatop 400W titanium heater