mrmrsmarine
10-23-2014, 03:51 PM
We are in the process of moving and last night was the night to move the tank over to the new house (29G Biocube). We had a beautiful pair of black ocellaris clownfish which we were hoping would start spawning soon.
The move went perfectly, in fact too well. Once all the fish were placed back in the tank we noticed the little male clownfish wasn't in his usual spot with his other half. Everything else was fine.
We searched and searched and finally saw his back end sticking out of a hole in the live rock. It somehow managed to squeeze himself into a tiny hole it could not get out of. Despite our best efforts we could not manage him out either. We left him overnight, hoping we would relax and somehow wedge himself out. However I awoke this morning to find only half his body sitting in the hole.
Sidenote: When moving our live rock last night, we noticed a few bristleworms underneath one piece. At the moment they are not posing a threat and they are good for eating leftovers so for now we will leave them be. We also have a wrasse who will take care of the smaller ones.
Anyway, pretty sure the clown died and the worms or the crabs went to town on him. Completely devastated, we love the clowns and have had the pair for over a year.
So getting to my question, do we go and find a suitable male for our female who is now left alone in the tank? Or should we get a little group of them. Our female is quite large and we are worried about introducing anything too small as we know they will try to establish dominance for a while and we wouldn't want the female to beat anything up too much.
Or, should we just start over with an entirely new pair and keep our female alone. How do the clownfish do if their partner dies?
Thanks for your answers!
The move went perfectly, in fact too well. Once all the fish were placed back in the tank we noticed the little male clownfish wasn't in his usual spot with his other half. Everything else was fine.
We searched and searched and finally saw his back end sticking out of a hole in the live rock. It somehow managed to squeeze himself into a tiny hole it could not get out of. Despite our best efforts we could not manage him out either. We left him overnight, hoping we would relax and somehow wedge himself out. However I awoke this morning to find only half his body sitting in the hole.
Sidenote: When moving our live rock last night, we noticed a few bristleworms underneath one piece. At the moment they are not posing a threat and they are good for eating leftovers so for now we will leave them be. We also have a wrasse who will take care of the smaller ones.
Anyway, pretty sure the clown died and the worms or the crabs went to town on him. Completely devastated, we love the clowns and have had the pair for over a year.
So getting to my question, do we go and find a suitable male for our female who is now left alone in the tank? Or should we get a little group of them. Our female is quite large and we are worried about introducing anything too small as we know they will try to establish dominance for a while and we wouldn't want the female to beat anything up too much.
Or, should we just start over with an entirely new pair and keep our female alone. How do the clownfish do if their partner dies?
Thanks for your answers!