Size of Clowns

[MCluett]

my tank is fully cycled and the first fish i intend to get is a false perc, actually i would like to buy a pair of them. should i be looking to by my fish as young and small as possible or should i be looking for a bigger more mature fish. from what one the guys at my LFS told me ( not to keen on this guy, i usually like to deal with the manager) that if i am looking for matched pair they are usually older? is this true? any help youcould offer is greatly appreciated.

 

[roka64]

They will sex themselves as they get older, if there is a pair of them. The larger is the female and the smaller, the male. You can try to buy a mated pair, or buy one larger one and one small one. It's best to add themat the same time.

 

[heylady]

The best way to get a pair of clowns is to buy them small. The more dominant of the two will become the female. If you buy adult sized clowns then there is the chance that you will have two females and they do not reverse their sex so you would have fighting going on. Unless of course the store is willing to guarantee that they are a mated pair!!

Clowns start out life as sub-dominant males. The most aggressive one in a group will become a female and the next in line will become a full male. The rest in the group will stay in that male limbo until one of the pair dies. Then the next in line will move up to become the full male, while the previous full male will then become the female. But they cannot go backwards on this. So two females stay as two females which can turn into a bad situation unless you have a large tank.

 

[MCluett]

i only have a 30gal so i am not looking for any fighting between females. thank you for the info, i may go out and have a look at one of my LFS and see what they have but i will look at getting to small ones or atleast one small and one larger one. and i do intend on adding them at the same time for sure. my tank has been cycled for a couple of days now i cant wait to get some fish in there, it is all i can think about

 

[cmor1701d]

Get two small ones and the let them figure it out over time. If one is already bigger there may be problems when you add them if she doesn't accept the smaller one.

 

[MCluett]

ok i will do that. i hope they pair up i dont want to have to seperate them. and what size are the small ones i have seen them around about the length of a quarter or so, that would be a young one right?