Female clown died how long before themale turne into female

[maroun.c]

got a sad phone call today from my parents who are taking care of my tank while I'm away that my 7 yrs old female clown fish has dies. This leaves the male clown alone in the tank.
I have had the male since around 3 years now and still he is very small (expectable I guess)
so the thing is that I will not be back before 3-4 weeks and I'm sure it'll take me some time to find another mate for him/her
so waht do you think would be the best bet: to wait a few months till he's definitely a she this way I get a smaller one and there is no risk that the old one is killed in the process?
is there any way to tell that he changed sex or at least is there any know time for this change to take place?

[advice1]

May I ask what a Nuclear Medicine Application Specialist is?

[littlefish72]

I think the best thing to do is just get a smaller one no matter how much time you wait

^and that is a good question

[maroun.c]

Advice1
Nuclear Medicine is an imaging modality (similar to CT or MRI...) with the difference that we use short lived low energy Isotopes that we mix with special pharmaceuticals and inject in patients. the pharmaceuticals used bind to the radioactive material and guides it towards specific organs or tumors so that finally we have more or less activity with different conditions, then we use Gamma cameras or PET systems to capture the signal from the radioactive used and turn it into an image.
Application specialist is my position as I stopped working in hospital and now work with a company that manufatures the scanners and I go give training to doctors or users that purchase our equipment.
In the end it's not as scary as it's name implies.

[littlefish72]

^that's what i thought it was

[phender]

Originally posted by maroun.c
is there any way to tell that he changed sex or at least is there any know time for this change to take place?

The safest bet is to just get a smaller clown.
Most of the sex change studies I have seen have taken place in the wild. In those cases the change could take place in as little as a month. However, you also must realize that in the wild most functioning males of clarki and tomato complex clowns are just as big as the females.
IME with clown pairs in aquariums, there seems to be a size function as to when a clown can become a female. Your little male will probably have to grow some before it can become a female, but just getting a smaller clown takes all the guess work out of it.

[maroun.c]

Little fish72 I'm sure you did
Phender
Thanks for the reply,
It is very true as my clarckie pair looked very equal in size that I always wondered if they were two females till I saw them spawning and saw some eyes in teh eggs.
The clown I'm talking about is my maroon clown where the female died and I will not be home till 1-2 months from now so this is why I'm so worried about the sex change.

[phender]

You will have to assess the situation when you get home. If the male maroon has put on a big growth spurt, then I would get a smaller fish.

If the male hasn't grown at all, I would get a large female.

Either way, maroons are notoriously difficult to pair in your situation.