Trying to create Mated Pair

kendall

kendall

Member
I added 2 Perculas a month ago...One was 2 inches head to tail and the other was an inch. The smaller one did all the twitching and I believe turned into a male. The 2 fish hung out together all day long. While they were courting eachother the larger fish always showed agrression towards the smaller fish and then it went away when I believe the relationship finally was established.
Well I came home today and the smaller guy commited suicide. On floor dead...
ANyways, we went to store and bought another cclown about the same size and introduced it to the tank tonight. I acclimated and dimmed lights to actinics.
The smaller just introdued fish is showing aggression towards the larger Percula. I mean like major aggression. I figured it would be the other way around?
What do you think? I figure they're both females at this point, but if the larger fish isn't showing dominance, do you think they don't have a chance of pairing up?
Any possibility of the lareger non-aggressive fish becoming the male? This is pretty fascinating to watch...I thought the larger Percula was going to torment this little fish...Definitely not happening 2 hours in. Mayb ethis is good for the little guy's survival during acclimation process anyways...
 
snailheave

snailheave

Active Member
you should get a cover.
if they are both female then it's not going to work. once a clown turns female it doesn't go back.
 
kendall

kendall

Member
I put the cover back on....SO annoying this could have been avoided, but I was having heat issues...Looks like I'll be running the AC 24/7...
THe little one is a juvenile so I figure it could still switch. When I shut the lights off they started swimming together. All night under ther moonlights they appear to have swam together near the surface. I'm wondering if I should keep the lights off for another day or turn them on and see what happens...
That little fish I put it was very nice, he handled the acclimaiton period the best Ive seen any one to date. I hope I can keep it. I guess I could always move him to the 10 gallon.
When do you give up? When you see blood? How long should you lelt them go at it before you pull one?
 
snailheave

snailheave

Active Member
when you see severe injuries (fish's standards of course.) i currently am doing the same with multiple clowns in my 75. but they each have their own host anemone.
 
xpdition03

xpdition03

Member
Originally Posted by kendall
I put the cover back on....SO annoying this could have been avoided, but I was having heat issues...Looks like I'll be running the AC 24/7...
I got a egg crate from home depot and works perfectly, no heat issues.
 
kendall

kendall

Member
I turned lights off and kept them under the moon lights for about 24hours...All night long they were cuddling near the surface in a corner ..I think the little guy realized it's a lonely world out there and he better make friends...Perhaps the initial aggressiveness was the little guy saying he wasn't going to get pushed around.
The actinics are now on and they are swimming together or the little guy follows the big guy around , but not aggressively...I just fed them, and will probably only give them a little taste of the actinics tonight and run them full blast tomorrow.
I'll keep the board posted on the progress of this pairing attempt...I think 1 clown dying in a pair happens alot and I'll share my experience of trying to restablish the situation...
 
speg

speg

Active Member
Wow.. I didnt know that once they go female they never turn back... (I personally dont blame them.......).
When I first got my tank set up I got two clowns and a BTA.. as soon as I added the clowns to the tank they were always swimming together. Sometimes they would look at each other face to face then slam into each other bitting each others mouths and swimming in circles while stuck together.. then they would twitch continously for a few seconds.
Then sadly one died and I got another one.. the smallest one available to me at the time.. this silly one noticed the clown in the BTA as soon as he entered the tank and ran straight into the BTA and the other one didnt even show aggression towards it... he died a couple days later.. I 'believe' it was due to anemone stings.. but it may have been a disease .. im just not sure..
Finally I decided to try once more to pair my clown.. I got another true perc.. smallest available to me at the time.. acclimated it correctly and everything and placed it in the tank... almost right away the older clown swam up to it and picked the hell out of it.. the new one would swim way to one side of the tank and the established clown would leave his anemone and travel ALL the way to the other side of the tank just to pick on the new comer... finally after about a week and several 'twitch attempts' the clowns will swim together.. the established one seems to have grown much larger in a very short amount of time.. im hoping they are now male/female... but there is only one sure way of knowing! :)
I guess what im trying to say is.. pairing is a pain in the butt.
 
speg

speg

Active Member
Originally Posted by snailheave
if they let it go they get fat

*sigh* Why do you say 'if'?
 
nomad

nomad

Member
Lets not just talk about the girls getting wider, haven't looked at guys lately? They're nothing to brag about either. Enough of this -- its off topic anyway.
 
speg

speg

Active Member
Originally Posted by Nomad
haven't looked at guys lately?

Sorry, cant say that I have.
 
kendall

kendall

Member
The LARGE female took control!!...Especially during feeding time or whenever I walk up to the tank...
Little guy is very cool and hanging in there...
:happy:
 
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