How can I tell if my clowns are paired

[idgy]

I bought them at the same time about 4 years ago. 99% of the time the are side by side, and one of them seems to be pushy over the other one. They both sleep in the same corner of the tank every night.

I want to add an anemone for them and was hoping they would both host in it together and not start to fight.

 

[cookie]

I have this same question!? Nice cat by the way!

 

[returnofsid]

Idgy, if you've had yours for 4 years, and the are always near one another, it's a good bet that they're paired. Does one appear to be larger than the other? If so, the larger one is the female and probably the "pushy" one.

How they will respond to an anemone, is guess work. There's a good chance that they'll accept the anemone and use it as a host, but it's no guarantee.

Cookie, if I remember right, from reading your other posts, you have a True Perc and an Occellaris. With these two different species of clownfish, they'll never become a true pair.

 

[brandyrb]

What do you mean by paired?

If you mean, how can you tell if they're a mated pair, you'll see them lay eggs eventually. The eggs are bright orange in the beginning then as the little fish mature, they turn silver right before hatching.

My clowns clear an area of the live rock by picking at it, then the female lays the eggs and the male fertilizes them and aerates them until they hatch. Not long after the eggs hatch, they are back at it.

 

[cookie]

Idgy, if you've had yours for 4 years, and the are always near one another, it's a good bet that they're paired. Does one appear to be larger than the other? If so, the larger one is the female and probably the "pushy" one.

How they will respond to an anemone, is guess work. There's a good chance that they'll accept the anemone and use it as a host, but it's no guarantee.

Cookie, if I remember right, from reading your other posts, you have a True Perc and an Occellaris. With these two different species of clownfish, they'll never become a true pair.

You are right....that is what I have. By never being a tre pair do you mean that they will never lay eggs or they will never be "buddies" or ....what do you mean by they will never be a true pair? I wish I would have understood this better initially. Whats funny, is I thought I did. Grrrrr. Learn, Learn, Learn!

 

[returnofsid]

They will definitely never be able to mate, since they're different species.

They may get along, but will never form a bond that clownfish of the same species will form.

I'd be surprised if they even continue to get along, long term.

 

[cookie]

They will definitely never be able to mate, since they're different species.

They may get along, but will never form a bond that clownfish of the same species will form.

I'd be surprised if they even continue to get along, long term.

Wow. Thanks for the info. Is it bad to want to trade her in? Guess we should have done our homework better.....amatures.

 

[Chichas01]

Wow. Thanks for the info. Is it bad to want to trade her in? Guess we should have done our homework better.....amatures.

I'm not sure this is true. It can happen. I thought I had heard of this before and have found this:

http://www.cababstractsplus.org/abstracts/Abstract.aspx?AcNo=20073204064

I'm pretty sure I've seen threads on other sites as well where this has happened.

 

[steveneglover]

I'm pretty sure in the book clownfish by joyce d. Wilkerson she talks about breeding ocellarous and percula together and it worked out fine

 

[brandyrb]

I heard, I think from kevinpo, that if two different species of clowns are going to get along ocellaris and percula would be it. I also aquired a used system with a pair of ocellaris and a true percula (it was a 65gal) and they got along fine. I traded them all in to kevinpo a while ago as I already had a mated pair of true percs.