Advice Wanted : Clarki Clown

[VicZA]

Hi All, I had a pair of Clarki's for a while, they were awesome and loved spending lots of time in my nennies. Unfortunately they did pick and bully each other to the point that one of them was driven out of the tank and was found dead on the carpet ... hence the advice required.

What is the best way to deal with the lone fish ? Do I try get him a mate to calm him down (as he defends those nennies very aggresively and chases other fish too), or do I just leave it as is.

Details:
- Clarki Clown
- Size about 8cms

Thanks
Vic

 

[trad]

Don't get another clown. That will just really piss him off.

Probably just his nature to defend his territory, as long as he's not stressing the other fish to a point where they become ill all should be fine.

Probably in future would be a good idea to only add guys larger than the clown.

 

[Willie85]

I'l remove the clown and put him in the sump for a week or so and when you get another clown add them both at the same time OR QT them both for a week with out any rock and sand where there is no territory to defend while they get use to each other. That's just what I would do cause a clown needs a mate and I would like to try and let them spawn at some point.

 

[madmatt]

I agree with @ Willie85 but get a much smaller one than your current one.
That way the small one will become male and will know the bigger female is the boss.

 

[zippy]

I've had success with 4 different pairs of clowns by always adding a bigger one to the existing smaller one.

 

[Willie85]

I've had success with 4 different pairs of clowns by always adding a bigger one to the existing smaller one.

That's cool @zippy thank for sharing.
How do they form pairs?
How many anemone's did you have in the tank?
Do they fight over the anemone's?

 

[zippy]

I'm on my second pair of maroon clowns, known to be the most aggressive clownfish available to reefers, so they say, but never had issues, they always share the same anemone, I've always added them an hour or so before Lights out, the bigger ones generally have already reached sexual maturity, fighting between clowns in my opinion only occurs when both are "undecided" as it were of their gender preference. Hence the ones that are similar size tend to act on each other, when they are younger. If the smaller clown does not show signs of submission within the first 3 minutes of becoming aware of the bigger clown added to the system, you know there is going to be problems. As soon as you see vigorous twitching from the smaller clown you know they are "submitting" to the dominance of the other.

 

[RiaanP]

All clowns are born male.

As they grow up, the biggest or most dominant one turns into a female.

So if you had a single clown for a long time, most likely it will be a female. Adding a much smaller younger mate and you could be a lot more sure that you are adding a male.

Clowns do not really need an anemone to survive. But wild caught ones would try to host in something.

 

[zippy]

Riaan is correct clownfish are all born Protandrous

 

[VicZA]

ok, going to try the route of adding a smaller one that is (hopefully) male but will add them to the sump first for a while - week or two. I also need to do some Nennie maintenance so this should help. Now to find a male Clarki