Replacing a Mated Clownfish

[protokix22]

Hi all. So a little over 3 weeks ago I lost one of my ocellaris clowns. He (I'm assuming it was a he because he was much smaller than the surviving clown) disapeared and that was the last I saw of him. I was wondering how, and if, I can replace the dude. My female seems lonely and I really loved seeing the two of the together. I think they were close to being mated, they were never far from eachother.

I've read that it's possible, but that I should get a really small clown. Has anyone replaced a mate with any success? Any suggestions? I know if I do this the surviving clown is probably going to pick on the newcomer, but I can deal with that as long as he doesn't stress it to death.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[bettaowner]

When a clownfish dies, the larger specimen will become a female. The smaller one becomes a female. I don't see any problems with this.

 

[nikki_kaiser]

Hi all. So a little over 3 weeks ago I lost one of my ocellaris clowns. He (I'm assuming it was a he because he was much smaller than the surviving clown) disapeared and that was the last I saw of him. I was wondering how, and if, I can replace the dude. My female seems lonely and I really loved seeing the two of the together. I think they were close to being mated, they were never far from eachother.

I've read that it's possible, but that I should get a really small clown. Has anyone replaced a mate with any success? Any suggestions? I know if I do this the surviving clown is probably going to pick on the newcomer, but I can deal with that as long as he doesn't stress it to death.

Thanks for any advice.

Your larger is most likely your female as stated. Get a much smaller clown to replace him. If you can get a juvenile this would be best simply because it hasn't sexually matured yet and you will know its not a female. Usually the very small ones are juveniles. I say this because while most people know that clowns can morph into females, what they do not know is that once this happens they cannot morph back into a male if placed with another female. This will usually result in them battling it out to the death with the stronger of the two winning. Let your LFS know what your looking for and tell them you have a female clown. They can point you in the right direction hopefully. . Also, I've mixed clown species together before but stay away from tomatoe clowns...they are mean!

 

[nikki_kaiser]

Hi all. So a little over 3 weeks ago I lost one of my ocellaris clowns. He (I'm assuming it was a he because he was much smaller than the surviving clown) disapeared and that was the last I saw of him. I was wondering how, and if, I can replace the dude. My female seems lonely and I really loved seeing the two of the together. I think they were close to being mated, they were never far from eachother.

I've read that it's possible, but that I should get a really small clown. Has anyone replaced a mate with any success? Any suggestions? I know if I do this the surviving clown is probably going to pick on the newcomer, but I can deal with that as long as he doesn't stress it to death.

Thanks for any advice.

Oops...forgot to mention that she will probably show some dominance when you introduce him. I fed my female before I introduced my male and this has nothing to do with anything important except that I felt if she had a full belly she wouldn't feel as much need to compete with him. There's no proof or research showing that to be true but just telling you what I did. If you are concerned that she will be too aggressive, you can buy dividers for your tank and introduce him on the other side. I have a piece of plexiglass that I put in my tank when I introduce something new. I specifically arranged my live rock knowing this so it slides right in. I only leave it there for a little while so my other fish can look at the newbie and vise versa. Different things work for different people. I would make sure you have a few little hiding places for your new clown so if he is nervous or scared he can hide out in an area not already staked out by the female until they make nice nice and become friends.

 

[Sniperhank]

I ran into a similar problem. I had a mated pair of b/w occellaris clowns and the male jumped out of the tank one day while I was at work, which is rare for clowns. I had set up my first SW tank 6 months before and had a tiny occelaris clown in that tank. I just tossed it in, as I had been wanting to change the other tank around for awhile. I have a ton of LR in my tank and it had lots of places to hide if he wanted to. This wasn't the issue, they found each other, did a quick chase around the tank, and then started swimming around together.

 

[nikki_kaiser]

I ran into a similar problem. I had a mated pair of b/w occellaris clowns and the male jumped out of the tank one day while I was at work, which is rare for clowns. I had set up my first SW tank 6 months before and had a tiny occelaris clown in that tank. I just tossed it in, as I had been wanting to change the other tank around for awhile. I have a ton of LR in my tank and it had lots of places to hide if he wanted to. This wasn't the issue, they found each other, did a quick chase around the tank, and then started swimming around together.

Oh wow!! He jumped out of the tank?? Boo! I'm going to get a small black and white to go with my true perc. Now get this...and I swear it's true... One of the guys that owns an LFS about 30 minutes from me has a set up where all his corals are. It's about a foot deep and 7 x 7. He has a ton of full grown snowflake clowns in there. I literally watched these things for 30 minutes and they didn't fight, chase each other etc. I asked him if he ever had issues and he said not with those. He's been doing it for 20 years. Maybe it's the size of the tank and the fact that there's so much coral etc in there but it pretty much defied the theory about fighting...however, I've never seen it anywhere else except reading about them in the wild. Idk why I just wrote all that but I found it extremely intriguing...lol!

 

[protokix22]

So I got back from the LFS a little while ago. I got a tiny little ocellaris. After acclimating him/her my surviving clown (which is at least 3 times bigger than the newcomer) found the new guy. After a little feeling out, the two are now best friends. Now I'm not getting too excited, I know this might not last forever.

One odd observation, however, is that the bigger clown is actually twitching (which I know is a sign of submission). I figured the new fish would be the one twitching, but I'll take it.

 

[nikki_kaiser]

So I got back from the LFS a little while ago. I got a tiny little ocellaris. After acclimating him/her my surviving clown (which is at least 3 times bigger than the newcomer) found the new guy. After a little feeling out, the two are now best friends. Now I'm not getting too excited, I know this might not last forever.

One odd observation, however, is that the bigger clown is actually twitching (which I know is a sign of submission). I figured the new fish would be the one twitching, but I'll take it.

Yeah!! So happy it worked out!