Clown fish questions

[Ryan]

Originally Posted by lee9

Yeah, I thought I saw a program on TV that said in nature clownfish typically live in social groups in their anemones. A large female and a smaller male which is the dominant pair and then a number of decreasingly smaller males. I wonder if this is ever imitated in an aquarium environment?

Correct except the smaller fish are not males nor females they are "adolescents" waiting for one of the pair to die and take place of the male.

In the ocean there is a huge amount of room for the smaller clowns to swim away vs in our aquarium. Not to mention 10 adolescent clowns in the wild vs 1 or 2 in our tanks.

Another cool fact; studies have shown in areas where clown fish hosting anemones live without a hosting clown pair the anemones get eaten and the other way around. Those small little clowns help protect the anemone and the anemone returns the favor.

[lee9]

[quote=Ryan;677340]Correct except the smaller fish are not males nor females they are "adolescents" waiting for one of the pair to die and take place of the male.

I thought they were all born as males and then change to females if the conditions are right. Most of the articles I have read have stated this. Although they have been just Internet sources though so I'm not sure how accurate they are.

Either way they are interesting little fish that's for sure.

[Ryan]

I guess you could think of it like that but in the Joyce D. Wilkerson book its stated that clowns are born with both sexual organs but they are not fully developed until they fish sort out who is male or female and who stays adolescent.

Who knows whos right. I have never actually cut one open to see.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Everything I've heard for years tells me that they are all born "genderless" then the largest one develops into a female and the second biggest turns into a male. If the female dies, the male turns into a female and the next largest one develops into a male. If the male dies, the next largest develops into a male and the female stays the same. I've had this happen in my tanks before so I have personally witnessed these types of gender transformations.

Right now, in the cube tank, the two largest have bred and adopted the RBTA (although they have a third roommate). The other four or five small Ocellaris stay away from the mated pair and live on the other end of the cube tank.

[Acipenser]

Yeah i think it was a mistake on my part to introduce this other clown at this stage, It's a Clarkii and from what Iv'e read are a little anal to tank mates - so Iv'e pulled the 2 smaller ones out. I guess one would need to start from scratch with 5 or 6 juveniles .

[Aquattro]

I "had" 2 ocellaris and 2 clarkii in my 180, it didn't end well. I'd stick to the pair...

[Ryan]

Clarkii clowns are probably the most tolerant of other clown, they just have to be from the clarkii complex. Clarkiis will pair off with a other clowns that arent even clarkiis. Such as clarkii x and 2 band are pretty commOn.