Clownfish Pairing

[georgec]

Hi all,

I did some searching about clownfish pairing and it sounds like this could be a long process, and that it could take 12-24 months for them to fully mature?

Situation: I purchased a pair of juvenile Darwin’s from Kimmie at last year and picked them up at spring frag swap. They beautiful fish and I’ve had them since, but they don’t seem paired.

The female continues to pick on the male fish who spends a lot of time hiding under my frogspawn colony. I’m just worried about the little guy. She also chases him some during feeding, but I watch to ensure he gets food too. However, he has always looked skinny while the bigger one is pretty full looking.

They don’t really spend time swimming together. There are definitely times where she is much more aggressive while other periods where it’s not as bad.

How concerned should I be? Will this eventually resolve. There are no other fish in the tank.

 

[Kensington Reefer]

as long as they eat, I would worry too much

 

[Kim Pattison]

The female takes the longest to mature. The male can be ready in 6 months. The female takes much longer to become sexually mature. The baby we kept from the first batch to hatch has only been breeding for 6 month so she was about 2 years old. In all honesty she is the meanest clownfish we have on hand and was difficult to pair until she started breeding.

The young female has to keep him from turning female by keeping him subservient. There is some research that suggests that the hormones released when the male is afraid inhibits the hormones that would let him change to female. Does he shimmy when she is after him. That is the correct response by him to her attack and is a sign of submission. If not she maybe looking for him to full submit. The female will stay aggressive. If you have any problems hit Jerry up.

 

[georgec]

The female takes the longest to mature. The male can be ready in 6 months. The female takes much longer to become sexually mature. The baby we kept from the first batch to hatch has only been breeding for 6 month so she was about 2 years old. In all honesty she is the meanest clownfish we have on hand and was difficult to pair until she started breeding.
... Does he shimmy when she is after him. That is the correct response by him to her attack and is a sign of submission. If not she maybe looking for him to full submit. The female will stay aggressive. If you have any problems hit Jerry up.

Hi Kimmie, what should I look for in terms of a "shimmy". The female tends to chase the male and he flees/swims away. It's definitely not fighting back or anything. My untrained eye is probably missing some other signs.

It was the March 2019 members frag swap when I picked them up from Jerry. So assuming they're still under the 2 year mark in age.

And to be clear for anyone reading, the fish are beautiful and I'd buy again in a heartbeat. I just wanted to ensure there wasn't some point where I should be trying to find the small one a new home or if this is one of those things that will eventually happen, and just takes longer than I thought it would for them to pair. I've purchased paired clowns for a prior tank, but they were already paired and swimming together. This is the first time I'm observing the full process from the beginning and don't want to allow a fish to die because I did something wrong.

 

[Kim Pattison]

Shimmy is kind of a shaking the male does. Sometimes can look like a shiver. It usually does not take this long for them to totally pair. Blue, that is what we named the baby we kept for breeding, was just mean. She chased a couple males out of the breed cells, but the breeding cells are smaller than the usual display tank and have no real hiding places. If he is not shimming he has not completely submitted either. Is she injuring him badly? If he is not getting damaged I would give them some more time. If it does not settle in the next couple months let us know.

I am sorry your fish are behaving so poorly to each other. It is rare but it does happen some females never like the mates we pick for them. The majority of our breeders are not picky and we rotate males with different females to maximize gene variety and they just right on breeding after a week or so. But 2 of the 13 breeding females we have, have 1 mate and 1 mate only. These 2 will kill anyone but the one males they have chosen. Neither of these fish are Darwin linage.

Please keep me updated.

 

[georgec]

Thanks. I'll keep an eye out for the shimmy. He has places to hide in the tank. Sometimes his tail looks nipped at, but he's been able to feed. I'll keep you updated.