new clown

[rugerman]

i just put a clown fish in my tank and it stays in the corner of the tank at the top is this normal? i also have two yellow tail damsels that where put in the same time as the clown

[Frag Hag]

That's what my little clown did for the first few days. He would venture a little bit further each time (probably ensuring his position on the food chain before he swam any more distance), eventually he was circling the tank.

[Reefland]

Completely normal.

[rugerman]

thanks I am new to saltwater sorry for all the dumb questions.seems everyone you ask has a different answer to every question.

[Green Marine]

yeah mine did the same thing.....and just like frag hag said mine is swimming in circles too....i cant believe your damsels got along with the clown. my damsel went picken at him as soon as he got in, but that was probably because i had the damsel in first....eh who knows...


hey is there any way of telling if your clown is a male or female?

[Frag Hag]

Per a posting on Reef Central:

Clownfish are protandrous hermaphrodites. Clownfish are hatched sexually immature or in other words sexless, neither male or female. This in the simplest of terms means that they change from sexless to male to female. This is a one way trip; sexless to male never to sexless again and male to female never to male again. They may spend their entire life as a sexually immature fish depending on their environment.

For a clownfish to change sex two requirements must be met. First the fish must be physically mature (12-24 months old) and must have an environmental cue to transform. The cue to become a female is the lack of a female in the environment. The cue to become male is that a dominate female is present in the environment, but the environment is lacking a male. The cue to remain sexless is that the environment has an existing dominate female and male pair.

[rugerman]

Has anyone ever heard of a clown using a fake anenome?i put a fake one in just as deceration and this morning my clown was lying lifeless under it?about 5 mins later he was up swiming and will not leave it.Do clownfish sleep?sure seems like mine is sleeping

[Reefland]

Sure the rest and hide at night.

Clownfish have accepted some bizzarre things as hosts in captivity, a fake anemone is one of them. Now if the fake anemone starts stinging other fish, then you have a problem.

[Green Marine]

My clown fish are actually using a piece of rock with a couple of mushrooms as if it were an aneneme or something...they keep staying near it and rubbing on it every so often....maybe there just bored lol

[queenangelRIP]

i didnt realy bother reading some of this (only the first couple ) but mine did the same thing then got sick and killed all my fish including my queen angel (hence the name ) so i would be carful