Percula Clowns

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BayTib13

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Feb 12, 2011
Messages
65
Location
Central Texas
Ok, so I got a false percula clown a few weeks back, and then a true percula that was a bit smaller than it. They seemed to get along ok, but they never slept in the same spot, and occasionally swam together. One day I noticed that my bigger percula was missing. I had bought a condy anemone a few days before. I noticed it was stretched way out, and I could see the fish inside of it..:(..so I took the anemone back, and picked up a new percula. This one is a little more than twice as big as the old percula. Keep in mind, the smallest one from before was the one that stayed alive. So, i got the new one about 3 days later. Here are a few pictures of them swimming together. My question is, how big does a percula need to be before it is mature enough to change sex/have eggs/fertilize eggs?

and, is this size difference too much, or a good thing? and I've also noticed they sort of dance around eachother every so often, and are always swimming together and sleeping in the same spot. Is this an indication that they may be forming a pair, or is it too early for the smaller one?

Edit: Also, I think the smaller one is a misbar, any input?
 

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They will "dance" if you want to call it that, the female will usually charge at the male, he will swim up and down in front of her to show that he is accepting her as the dominate fish. As far as how large they need to be before mating I couldn't tell you. Your male is a misbar, as he is missing his third bar entirely.
 
As they become a mated pair u will notice ur female will get alot bigger than ut male is. My female is more than twice the size of my male. As for the age my pair had been together more than 2 years before they started laying eggs. If u want to get them an anemone i would suggest a carpet anemone. They love them and carpets atleast in my experience dont mobe much and they usually dtay low in the tank
 
Thanks for the replies!

Jabibi: Do you happen to remember how big they were? mine are currently about...2 inches long and 1 inch tall, and the other is about 1" long and 1/2" tall. And what do you think about zoanthids? will they host them?
 
Mine were much bigger than that when they began breeding. You will notice that the male will grow but not very much. The female is the one that will get much bigger. I dont know if they will go into zoas. I have seen them host in open brains, mushrooms, torches, hammers, duncans, and frogspawns. I have never seen them in zoas before but you never know.
 
i think i read somewhere that a clown had hosted a colony of zoas, but i cant remember for sure..

as for the Nem eating my clown, yea it was asuprise but after it happened, i did some searching and it turns out its actually not uncommon for a condylactus to eat a clownfish
 
Where did you read about condys eating clowns? I just got a condy and am intending to get 2 clowns very soon.
 
i believe theres a few threads on here about it, but you can google somethin like anemone ate my clownfish, etc. and probably find them, im in class or i would find some links.

also, im thinking they are male and femle, as since the moment i added the new(bigger) clown, they havent fought at all and swim together all the time, and actually protect eachother from my yellow tailed damsel who likes to pick on everybody
 
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