Pairing clowns

[MikeDeL]

I moved my clown into my 45 today and decided this would be the best time to try and pair her. I added another smaller clown at the same time this evening. So far all seems to be well. There was one brief "stand off" during the first minute or two together (nothing violent), but nothing since. They are now swimming around together and the smaller one seems to follow the larger one everywhere. So how long does it usually take before you know they have successfully paired?

[Reef69]

Pairing?..its up to the clowns, there is nothing you can do about it..you wont notice since you dont have a group of clowns..if you did, you would notice the pair chasing around the other clowns in the tank. In the next few days you will see alot of weird behavior, like twitching (usually the male with do it as a sign of submission towards the female, meaning he means no threat or harm), and biting (if you notice a piece of fin missing from the smaller clown, dont worry, its normal)...good luck

[Thunderkat]

The only way to know for sure is to check for a ring on one of their fins :lol

[MikeDeL]

I wasnt wanting to know how to MAKE them pair. I know its pretty much up to them if they want to or not. I was just wanting to know how long it might take them to pair IF they decide to pair and how I would be able to tell if they have paired.


Thanks,
Mike

[CD]

Mike - are they still fairly young? It's kind of hard to tell by the pic what size they are. I would imagine once they have reached maturity, and (if) they DO decide to pair, they will probably start looking for something (anemone, etc.) to host...from there, I guess it's just waiting to see if the female will lay eggs. We've not had clowns lay eggs yet, but I can't imagine they would act much differently together whether they were just "buddies" or a mated pair, until of course the female lays eggs.
I *have* noticed the "twitching" behavior that Diego mentioned from our smaller clown (before the problem we had awhile back that took the life of the larger female), BUT that would just be a sign of submission, not the indication that they were actually a mated pair.

Since Larry (Instar) raises clowns, you may consider sending him a PM to see what he thinks? I would be interested to know for sure also.

Wendy