sex

angelsrock

Member
alrighti heard something that i've never heard about clowns. that if they are in a single --- environment one turns into the opposite --- so they can reproduce(which i know about). what i havn't heard about is if they are female or change into female they can't turn into males. so basically once they're female they stay female. is this true cause i'm having a hard time believing it.
 
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thomas712

Guest
According to the book Clownfishes by Joyce Wilkerson that is absolutly correct.
"Once a clownfish becomes female, she is permanently female and can never again be a functioning male."
Thomas
 

angelsrock

Member
damn, so how do you know if you just bought another female then. i have a maroon clown that fans the sand all the time and is pretty big about 2-3 inches with really nice coloring which i think is a female. well i wanted to get a second to try and pair it up, but this one is almost twice the size of my original. is there any other way to tell if a clown is male or female besides size.
 

pitbull01

Active Member
nope, pink skunks do though...I can't remember which is which though-the one with the orange lining on the caudal fin is something, and the one that doesnt is something...
 
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thomas712

Guest
Females are typically larger and more aggressive, but that varies by species. Personally I would have started with two juvinals.
 

angelsrock

Member
but is there any way to tell if they are male female besides size when they are adults, i already have the fish in the tank. they havn't fought but they are on opposite sides of the tank.
 
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thomas712

Guest
Maroon clowns would be difficult, there is little to no color diff between the two. Other than disecting them or counting the spines along the dorsal fins it would be difficult.
 

bud green

Member
i just read an article in Coral magazine (Oct/Nov issue) where the author had a mated pair. the female was constantly picking on the male, so she seperated them. for reasons she explains in the article, she put them back together, they fought some more, bu this time the male took the upper hand, the female retreated and emerged 3 days later as a male. the, two weeks later, "he" was a fully funtional female, and "she" was a male. just passing on what's in the article.
 
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