pairing up clowns

[Agu]

I recently purchased from another hobbiest a sebae clown and it's host anemone. (Yeah, I know it's not pc but the alternative was that it went to the lfs) They have their own 37 gal oceanic and are doing great. I've paired up clowns before but usually in larger tanks. Plus this clown has had sole possesion of her anemone for about 8 mo. The tank has plenty of lr and hiding places. If I added a small immature male what are the chances they'd pair up, or am I condemning an innocent clownfish to death? Agu

[Agu]

If I said that aformentioned fish would would be expected to fornicate and possibly propagate, would this elicit a reply? Come on guys, I'm trying to support this forum. Agu

[FMarini]

Hi:
many thanks for using the forum......
I think the reason no one responded is that the clownfish experts are busy...never the less, have you had a chance to puruse Joyces wilkerson's or d Faustins book on breeding clowns? AS far as what your looking for I would have to say from my experience w/ breedng other fish, that the male will be recieved, but hassled for a while...I'm not too sure of temperments of female clowns, however I can speculate that they are biligerent, and don't take kindly to strangers....SO if you do introduce said male i would keep and eye on him, and if he shows signs of getting his butt kicks rescue him....Not sure if this is th eanswer your looking for
frank

[Agu]

O'MAN, I'm not sure it's changed to a female yet, but if a smaller immature male (they all start out that way) is added the most dominant fish becomes the functional female. If there needs to be more than one clown in the tank for the change to occur I'm not sure. Any clown I'd add would be smaller and immature just in case. BTW, the Wilkerson book is available online for further research. Agu

[Q-ball]

Agu, I'm definately no clown expert by any means, but I think if your male is noticeably smaller than the female, she is less likely to take him as a threat, and more likely to see him for his possibilities as a mate. Just to be safe, give him some hiding spots in there should she chase him around...she probably won't go far from the anenome (although it's not too big of a tank either) so if you give him some good hiding spots on the other side I think it'd work. With my clowns, it seems like "out of sight, out of mind" is their general attitude towards most things...Good luck & keep us posted!

Q!!!

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"Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into
nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes
easy." - Albert Einstein

[O'Man]

Hey Agu:

Just wondering how you know for sure you have a female. I have a similar situation to yours with a tomato clown, but since I am not 100% certain of its sex, I did not want to get any fish killed. I keep going back and forth on do I add a much bigger clown or a much smaller one.