Twitchy Clowns...

[sstanle4]

Hi all. We have 2 clownfish and it looks like they are having little seizures.. I've read that this twitchy behavior is them trying to determine which one will become the male, and which the female. Should we be worried? They seem to be getting a little bit more aggressive as the day goes on.. I also read that if they are too similar in size, they will fight to the death... and ours differ in size by only a half an inch.. I don't wanna lose either one of our clowns.. What do yall think?

 

[Austin.brehun]

I only have one clown but it has done that once and and kept twitching but it is still living today with no problems

 

[Kio707]

It is a dominance dance... Just keep an eye on them. Mine fought and I lost a b&w over it. It gets to bad, might have to separate them.

 

[sstanle4]

how would we separate them? just in case it does get too bad...

 

[austinsdad]

Twitching is a very normal thing for them. Had a pair for 6 yrs and that happened often. That and aggressive behaviour are 2 very different things. I believe the twitching is just either a "come hither" move or a "will you please come hither" move.

Twitching is nothing to worry about.

 

[Kio707]

how would we separate them? just in case it does get too bad...

Put one in a QT tank or may even have to get rid of one. Let them try to figure it out, just watch if ones taking the blunt of the beating!

 

[sstanle4]

ok so twitching is good. and if it gets too bad, separate. easy enough.
they are playing hide and seek now.. haha one will chase the other, then will hide, then whenever they get close to each other they twitch. it's rather fun to watch. i just wanted to make sure they werent dying or anything

 

[austinsdad]

No need to separate from any twitching. It's not bad. Chasing isn't bad either yet. Nipping at fins is. Even still, they could be just working out their partnership as who is the dominant female -the larger one.

Did you get them as a pair from the lfs from different tanks or in the same tank as other clowns or just those 2 in a tank with no other clowns?

How long ya had them?

 

[sstanle4]

we've had them for about three weeks. we got them from a lfs that had about 10 in a tank, but we got the last two.

 

[austinsdad]

Sounds like they'll be fine if there are no tattered fins yet.

 

[Yash]

Twitching is a very normal thing for them. Had a pair for 6 yrs and that happened often. That and aggressive behaviour are 2 very different things. I believe the twitching is just either a "come hither" move or a "will you please come hither" move.

Twitching is nothing to worry about.

I like the way u put that.I can totally see one of clowns saying Please come hither mr Clownfish lol

 

[David S]

twitching is part of the dominance dance and completly normal.

 

[sstanle4]

So how long does this take normally place?

 

[David S]

It can take a while,I think mine were doing it for over 6 weeks.

 

[austinsdad]

Six years for mine.

 

[sstanle4]

Ok well they have almost stopped doing it. They only do it now like a few times a day is that good?

 

[Strawman]

yep, they should stay twitching for a while

 

[sstanle4]

how will we know it's done?

 

[Strawman]

Mine still twitch and I bought them mated. It doesn't happen all day but when I am watching the tank it usually happens atleast once

 

[sstanle4]

Oooh ok