New False perc's

[Blake]

I went to all the local fish shops looking to add my first fish to my 29g biocube, the tank has been up for 7 months and has many corals inside from large leathers to blue acro's, i also have bought a T-5 set up from World Wide Corals ( my favorite fish store ), so after 7 months i feel it is established and ready for fish. i deiced i wanted to add clowns to the tank, and i decided on false percs because i liked them best
All i see on this forum is unsuccessful pairing threads so i wanted to share a good one. i picked out the male because he had allot of black on him. i was planning on only getting one but the man offered me a good deal of $35 for a pair, so i chose the largest one in hopes it was the female in school, it seemed as is was because all the others would come up to it and "vibrate" and such so i chose her. after i dripped them i released them at the same time. there is absolutely no aggression. they have been in for like 16 hours and are inseparable. it was a lucky pairing or i had good buying strategy. either way!
i will try to add pictures but i dont know how so...

[Blake]

here are pics http://www.reefland.com/forum/member...g-biocube.html

[zhenya]

It was indeed a great buy, and probably good strategy on your part for their pairing easily. I would do the same thing---watch them in the store and buy accordingly.
By the way, the image that you marked mushroom should be marked zoanthiids because that's what they are. ;)

i will try to add pictures but i dont know how so...

To attach images from your computer to your post, click on the "manage attachments" button below the editor (scroll down the page some), that should open small window with 5 "browse" buttons. Simply click on one and this should open another window where you can chose a file from your computer, wherever you stored them. Mine are in the My Documents directory and in My Pictures folder, very easy to do.
Here's an old thread where we discussed this How to post a pic?

[Ninong]

Hi Blake,

All i see on this forum is unsuccessful pairing threads so i wanted to share a good one.

I don't remember seeing any unsuccessful pairing threads at all. Maybe you're talking about pairing up clownfish with an anemone host? We've had a lot of those because some people purchase anemones that are not natural hosts for their species of clownfish.

i picked out the male because he had allot of black on him.

Male and female ocellaris clowns are not differentiated by the amount of black they have. In fact, if you purchased juvenile captive-bred clownfish, which is very likely, then they are no more than 6-9 months old and not yet sexually mature.

i was planning on only getting one but the man offered me a good deal of $35 for a pair, so i chose the largest one in hopes it was the female in school...

The largest one is definitely on its way to becoming a female, so that's a good strategy. Always choose a larger one and a smaller one when that's an option. However, it won't make any difference in the long run if you purchase two of the same size in juvenile ocellaris clownfish because they will sort things out on their own. The one species that it does make a difference is Premnas biaculeatus, the maroon clownfish. Those guys can be so aggressive when they go through the gender determination process that I don't believe I would want to start off with two of the exact same size.

...because all the others would come up to it and "vibrate" and such so i chose her.

That's a typical submissive display. I can't tell the size of your fish from the photos so I can't say for sure if either of your fish has progressed to sexual maturity yet.

All clownfish are protandrous hermaphrodites, unlike the majority of reef fishes, which are protogynous hermaphrodites. Protandrous simply means "male first." Protogynous means "female first." In protandrous hermaphrodites, the fish are born neither male nor female. As they grow, the male gonads are first to mature, followed by the female gonads. If the fish is maturing in close proximity with a sexually mature pair -- such as the the wild where three or four clownfish may be living in the same large anemone -- then it will be unable to mature sexually. It will remain a sexually immature juvenile due to the social pressures of the mature fish.

Gonads mature only following cues from certain hormones that cannot be produced in the presence of other sexually mature fish. In other words, in the wild, a clownfish could remain sexually immature for several years if there is 'no vacancy' for it to move up. If two or more baby clownfish settle out of the plankton at the same time and all land in the same anemone that happens to be totally uninhabitated, then they will mature at the same time. The most aggressive of the group will grow faster than the others because it will get more to eat by being pushy. It will be the first fish of the group to reach sexual maturity as a male. It will then progress immediately to becoming a female. Its male gonads will become inactive and atrophy after its female gonads mature. In clownfish, once a female, always a female.

The runner-up, the fish that came in second in the race for supremacy, will mature sexually as a male but it will be unable to progress to female in the presence of the other female. These two will become a mated pair. The third and fourth place finishers are out of the money for the time being. They will not be able to mature sexually at all. The third ranking clownfish, if it is allowed to remain with the sexually mature pair, will get more to eat than the fourth ranking fish because it ranks higher in the pecking order. The fourth ranking fish is last on the totem pole.

If anything should happen to either the male or the female, then everybody else moves up a notch. If the female dies or diasppears, or whatever, then the male will become the new female and the highest ranking sexually immature fish will become the new male. Some species of clownfish do allow more than just two fish to inhabit the same anemone, depending on the size of the anemone, but others don't. You won't find more than two maroon clowns in the same anemone. You will usually find more than two ocellaris clowns or skunk clowns, for instance, in the same anemone if it is a large enough anemone.

Gender in clownfish is determined by social aggression.

[Blake]

lol i didn't call the male a male because of the black. he was a male because he was pulled from a school of clowns and was one of the many small ones and not the large on that i bought which is obviously the female

[Ninong]

How large are your clowns?