Clown sex change

[magma01]

I've read/heard about clown fish's ability to change sex.

If you get two clown fish from a LFS, do they always change sex so that at the end, there is one male and one female? How long does the process take?

[lanxang]

Once one changes into a female (the biggest of the two) she will stay at that state. If the female was to ever die and the male left alone for a several monthes, he will inturn be a she.

If you were to ever buy two at the same time, look for one that are swimming together or buy a big one and the smallest one.

[lanxang]

you can check out this forum for more info on the subject:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=36

[sfsuphysics]

If they're from a LFS in SF and they work for the city they can have the sex change and have it covered under their medical insurance...

As to what you get from a LFS it depends, if there are two fish in the same tank and they aren't fighting, then there's a 99% chance they both aren't female, which is good because the female is the last step in a sex change they can't revert back to male. So if you get two fish from the same tank there is a really good chance they will be ok. If you get them from separate tanks then you might run into troubles since LFS owners do realize that there can be fighting and separate fish.

The end result though can vary. One definately will become female, the other will become male the only issue is the female may not accept the male. Also a single fish can and will become female if left alone for enough time.

There is a bit a bit of an eye for seeing if a particular species of clown is still a juvenile or not.

[magma01]

that's some good medical insurance coverage we the taxpayers pay for ...

I got my pair of ocelaris clowns from LFS from the same tank. I'm hoping they're becoming a mated pair. I see the smaller one do its jiggling/shaking dance sometimes when the bigger one approaches.

[jimsar]

If you buy both from the same tank and they're the same size, there's a chance that they're "tank bred" and may be siblings. Dunno about you, but in-breeding brings back memories of the Peacocks, X-Files Home (http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/GuidePageServlet/showid-61/epid-565/)

Mike, you're too funny.
Jim

[ikanayam]

Or buy them when they are really small and wait till they grow up. Got mine at different times and the one that went into the tanks first became the female. Bosses the male around all the time.

Got them at about an 1 inch length...they are a breeding pair now. Now if only they will stop laying in the rock and lay on the nice flowerpot I provided.