I picked up 2 juve true percs in June. Lost one to brooky the first week (very sad, I was away for 3 days and my wife wasn't able to diagnose quickly enough), but the other has been as been as fat and happy as can be. I really wanted a pair, but I decided to wait and let the one mature and turn female.
I don't have any other clowns in the tank, and given the size and time I was fairly confident the turn had taken place. She (hopefully a she) has been fat and happy since June. I told my LFS to start looking for nice juve true percs about 6 weeks ago and they got 3 in about 10 days ago. I picked 1 I liked, put it on hold for a week to make sure it was healthy enough to bring home. The new guys is probably 70-75% the size of the original fish from June.
Got him in the tank last night right before lights out. Initially both clowns went to a hammer coral and looked like they were going to instantly pair and host in the hammer. About 10 minutes later the female (bigger one from June) started fighting/picking on the new guy.
Lights went out and they separated to "sleep". This morning there were a few noticeable marks on the new guys' fins, but he looked ok overall. I watched them for about 2 hours this morning before I needed to leave. There would be a few minutes of fighting/antagonizing by the female, followed by some relative calm, and then fighting again.
Strangely, I saw the female (antagonizer) do the clownfish twitch that I've read much about. It was very brief and only 2-3 times. I then saw the new guy do the same twitch a few times after those displays. When I left the female was back to picking on the new guy.
So here are my questions
1) Is it normal for both fish to do the "twitch" during this process? I was under the impression that only the submissive fish did it.
2) Is it possible that my original fish (from June), hasn't turned to female yet?
3) How long can/should this go on? If they aren't going to pair, I don't want to lose the new guy. Some fin damage and stress is normal for this process, but is there a way to tell when enough is enough?
4) Anything I can do to help reduce the stress or speed up the process? The new fish did eat this morning along with all the other tank inhabitants, so that was a good sign.
Help is much appreciated. I'm really hoping my first crack at getting a bonded clown pair works out.
Thanks in advance.
I don't have any other clowns in the tank, and given the size and time I was fairly confident the turn had taken place. She (hopefully a she) has been fat and happy since June. I told my LFS to start looking for nice juve true percs about 6 weeks ago and they got 3 in about 10 days ago. I picked 1 I liked, put it on hold for a week to make sure it was healthy enough to bring home. The new guys is probably 70-75% the size of the original fish from June.
Got him in the tank last night right before lights out. Initially both clowns went to a hammer coral and looked like they were going to instantly pair and host in the hammer. About 10 minutes later the female (bigger one from June) started fighting/picking on the new guy.
Lights went out and they separated to "sleep". This morning there were a few noticeable marks on the new guys' fins, but he looked ok overall. I watched them for about 2 hours this morning before I needed to leave. There would be a few minutes of fighting/antagonizing by the female, followed by some relative calm, and then fighting again.
Strangely, I saw the female (antagonizer) do the clownfish twitch that I've read much about. It was very brief and only 2-3 times. I then saw the new guy do the same twitch a few times after those displays. When I left the female was back to picking on the new guy.
So here are my questions
1) Is it normal for both fish to do the "twitch" during this process? I was under the impression that only the submissive fish did it.
2) Is it possible that my original fish (from June), hasn't turned to female yet?
3) How long can/should this go on? If they aren't going to pair, I don't want to lose the new guy. Some fin damage and stress is normal for this process, but is there a way to tell when enough is enough?
4) Anything I can do to help reduce the stress or speed up the process? The new fish did eat this morning along with all the other tank inhabitants, so that was a good sign.
Help is much appreciated. I'm really hoping my first crack at getting a bonded clown pair works out.
Thanks in advance.
