I have some questions about my clowns...

[yannifish]

I bought two ocellaris clowns a month ago, one is about one inch and the other is 3/4 inch. They are not paired.
1) Will one change --- in order for them to pair up?
2) How old do they have to be to be able to lay eggs?
3) Is it normal for the larger to pick on the smaller?
4) When the larger does pick on the smaller, the smaller will turn side ways the larger and start vibrating. Does this mean they are pairing up?
5) How fast do clownfish grow?
Thank you in advance for your anwers! And I just thought I would tell you that they are eating well and are almost ready to go in my DT!

 

[yannifish]

bump

 

[krichardson]

the larger of the two will become the female, and yes it is normal for the bigger one to pick on the little one, mine did for a while and eventually gave up and now the are buds.
the turning on the sides and vibrating thing means the little one is submitting to the big one, it doesnt mean they are pairing for mating purposes. i have a pair of clowns and they arent "makin babies" yet...

 

[reefmate75]

ive heard of people having a set of clowns for years befor they breed...one thing to remember when tring to breed a pair of fish is a board fish is a breeding fish, if you have alot of rocks and anemones for them to play in then more then likely they will not want to breed, also fish notice the change in the water makeup and know when its time to breed in the wild, spring and fall when the algae Bloom in the ocean is their signal (knowing when their babies will have stuff to eat) meaning if your tring to get them to breed and they will not try lowering the SG and raseing the temp by 1 degree as long as it dosent surpass 81 degrees lowering the SG means the rivers are flowing and the algae bloom is near and they need to breed if they want their young to live, thats why breeding facilitys keep their water at 1.019-1.021 SG
but i got off subject sorry....from the size you gave me on the breed i would not say they will breed anytime soon, they could pair up, and when they are able to they might breed as long as the water is right for breeding, when they get older the larger will not harass the male so much if at all, i hope this helps,
P.S. if she really just dose not like the male then she will simply kill him, if they been together for a month thats still to soon to tell and they sound like they arnt even a year old yet so just watch them and make sure she isnt going to kill him (biteing off fins, and ripping his mouth off are pretty good signs she dose not like the one shes with )

 

[yannifish]

Thank you! Now that they are back in the big tank (55g

) They are almost never more then six inches apart, but I'll keep an eye on them.