Clownfish feeding and sex

[kidsoccer78]

I have a 9 month old occelaris that lives alone in my 10 gal tank. I usually feed him frozen brine shrimp but want to mix up his diet. I ordered some pellets from bulk reef supply. She or he seems to eat them but then spits them back out, any advice on how to get him or her used to the food?

Also, can a clownfish change sex multiple times? This clown used to be in my 24 gal with a female but she died. Now that the fish is alone can it become a female? It is about 9 months old.

 

[coralbandit]

All clowns are born female and may become male if necessary.
Can't say about back and forth ,but I would swear I have seen this in red irian rainbows(FW) myself years ago.
The spitting out may be part of how they eat or they need to be softened.
Pellets are questionable for marine use IMO(still have same NLS marine 3/4 full from 3 years ago..), but possibly letting the pellets soften may help the clown eat them quicker , and help prevent possible bloat from expansion of food.

 

[Animal-Chin]

Put a cube of brine shrimp in a class with a bit of tank water. Throw in like 10 pellets and let the shrimp melt with the pellets in there. The pellets will take on some shrimp flavor so the fish will eat them. As time goes on they will start to get used to the feel and taste of the pellets then you can start just chucking them in. The trick is tricking the fish to think they should eat the pellet.

 

[kidsoccer78]

I hadn't thought of transferring the smell, great idea! I'll try that tomorrow.


Anyone else familiar with sex changes?

 

[TreyC2010]

I've been told that the larger clown turned into a female so that means they're born male. I don't think one would turn female being alone but I'm not sure. That's the only thing wrong in finding nemo.. It would've been a Bruce Jenner situation.


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[Bdonaldson]

All clowns are born male. If they want to mate one will turn into a female and will grow larger than the male. I have a pair of clarkii clowns that did this.

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[Bdonaldson]

OK I was wrong about the clowns being all male. I just learned that they are not born male or female so you would have to but two young clowns and they will decide who is the male and who is the female.

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[TreyC2010]

They have both organs so that would be right. They'd choose when paired.


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