Trouble pairing my maroons, help!

[Cheebs]

Hey there,
I've had a naroon clown in my tank for a couple months, and he's been hosting a bta. Anyways, I wanted to pair it with another maroon, but of course maroons are one of the harder species to pair. I read that the best way is to introduce a a maroon that is quite a bit smaller and seperate them to see their reaction to eachother (see recent thread about maroon pairing). However, the size difference between my clown is maybe an inch, give or take, with the larger one being about 3-3 1/2 inches.

I seperated them for a few hours, but unfortunately I don't think I had a clear enough container, because they pretty much ignored eachother. When I let them both go free in the tank, all hell broke loose. The smaller one started beating the crap out of the large one. The large one looked like he wanted to pair up and was just defending itself, but the small one just kept hacking away until the large one started trying to hide. I turned all the lights off early and they are both seperated now, but the big one is beat up pretty bad.

Should I attempt something while things are calm? Maybe I should try and rig up a better container to isolate one of them so they can both see eachother? Or should I wait until the lights flick on again and see what happens? I'm afraid if they go at it much more there might be some permanent fin damage and I'll have to call it quits.

Thanks.

[Tom-Kat]

u might have gotten another female. i just went through this with my maroons. what i did was i got a super small baby marron from petco and put him in a specimen contaner for 3 days and then i let him and never fought.. I think personally the key is to pairing them is u need a big clown and a really small clown.

[Daveyboi]

I agree with Tom-Kat. I did the same thing. One larger and the other one is half the size. They paired up fine. Hopefully they'll become a mated pair...


Dave

[Cheebs]

Thanks guys

However, I'm still going to give this a go, but I can't have my fish attacking eachother anymore, so I tried isolating them from eachother.



Is this wise? If I let them loose with the lights on they jsut go at it like crazy...

[Cheebs]

Also, Will damaged fins and scales recover? I know really minor damage does, but what about larger chunks?

[Tom-Kat]

yes they will recover

[Cheebs]

Well I tried again today, they fought again, but not as viciously, although that might be because one of them is so seriously battered already.

I'm starting to wonder if I should try and find a new home for him immediately, or keep trying. Is this a lost cause? I don't want to hurt the fish if there's no chance of it working.

[Tom-Kat]

i really think ur new maroon is a female... if it was me i would find him a new home. and go to petco and get a small maroon clown thats were i got my small maroon at

[Cheebs]

Well, tommorow I'll try once more but if they so much as nip once at eachother, I'll have to let the new one go to a new home

[timrandlerv10]

heh...if thats your standard, save one more fin. guaranteed to nip at least one more time in the dominance-establishing phase, and i want to +1 on the 'you have two females' idea.

good luck next time!

tim

[Cheebs]

So be, off goes the newer clown to someone else. My clown doesn't seem to be battered muc at all, his fins are fine, a couple spine scars on his white stripes which I hop will face with time.

However, his jaw looks like it might be a little injured, it's not really opening and closing when he breathes, it just stays open. Is this normal after a bit of fin nipping action? Still seems to eat just fine..

[Cheebs]

Update - Jaw starting to move now, it must have been sore.

[ssagent]

Really hard. Maroons are very mean fish. I had a pair before. One got sick and put to the QT tank. I put it back and they fought to dead.