I just got a new pair of maroon clowns last night. After acclimation, we put them in our DT and fed them some frozen brine shrimp. They ate like pigs, were swimming all around the tank checking out their new home. The female is a MONSTER! She is really close to 5"! Anyway the question I have is, this morning it looked like they were doing a spawning dance inside of one of the caves but I couldn't see any eggs. Now the female has two lighter color streaks on two different fins. I will take pictures this evening if she still has them. What could cause this? She was really stressed when we caught her to begin with and turned almost completely black.
where are the streaks... are they on the anal fins or tail or where?... Black coloring is typical, Tail streaks can be simple things but location is the question. They could be courting one another... Keep an eye on them though and they should be fine.
two are on her right pelvic fin and then two more on her left anal fin it is just a slightly lighter color, not a lot, but enough to notice that it wasn't there before I brought her home. The male looks just fine and swims all over the tank, she will too, but only to get food otherwise she hangs out in her cave or fights with her reflection
I wouldnt be too worried with it. Maroon clown females are... well... just lazy. They dont move much from where they host or dwell and basically will do nothing but flutter around in a hole all day. Maroon females tend to mimic egg fanning no matter if they have them or not. They will often times flutter so much they mess up their tails on the rocks or something b/c in nature they do this to their anemone host which is soft... They also tend to be pretty moody and will fight anything that comes by their place of dwelling and if she sees her reflection.... well lets just say she doesnt know any better and just sees another big female moving in that she has to eliminate so she will attack it. Its just maroons nature... I wouldnt be too worried
Found this pretty easy to show you of another doing the same thing at attacking herself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpR099Jp29g And this is how they tear up their tail fins and anal fins http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDnYJWr7cm8
LOL its funny you posted that video, when I saw her doing it I looked on youtube and found that one. And they haven't started moving the sand around yet, but the guy I got them from said that's why they weren't in his main tank, because they kept fanning sand onto his corals and killing them.
Yeah... they can be real nightmares in a tank with a fine substrate bottom. I have had to get rid of one for the same reason. Sad though, they are really fun, cool fish.
I think they are the best looking clowns, that's why I couldn't pass up the deal on them. Now I'm gonna have to figure out how to add more fish without them tormenting the new guys.
