Maroon Breeding

ounce a clown is a female it can never go back to a male but a male can become a female

 

i heard the same thing that once they become a female they cant change back, but who knows wut happens in the wild

 

From what I've learned it's best to introduce two maroon clowns at the same time. Mostly because they are freakishly territorial. It's best to go with the more juvenile of fish so that neither is already the domanent (and so has become the female)...

 

All clowns a protandrous sequential hermaphrodites. They always go from juvenile to mature male to female; there is no going back for clowns.

Maroon females are notorious for accepting new mates. She will not just try to beat up the new fish, she will kill him if she can. A hamster ball or breeder pen or such is a good idea. The odds of getting two maroon females to live in the same tank is very low - it can be done with other clowns, but maroons (and the tomato complex) are not as tolerant

 

After the first couple of days water changes need to be made every 24 hours

 

Maroons are the most difficult to pair. As is well known, the larger will most likely become the female and the smaller the male. But maroons are mean. They are stubborn. A 2.5" specimen is most likely unsexed if it is alone. The gives you two options. Introduce a maroon no bigger than 1" or one significantly bigger than your inhabitant. Size discrepancy is the key to pairing maroons. The bigger the size difference, the easier the pairing. A very large and a very small is almost immediate most of the time. However, if they are close, there is a chance that they will fight until one of them dies. Neither one will want to be 'the dude'. Good luck....

 

I completely agree. That's why I picked out a little guy to go with my giant female. She recently beat him into submission and has tattered one of his ventral fins. Now he just follows her around the tank, rubs on her side and sleeps at the side of their anemone when she is in it.
When adding a new smaller maroon, you will know when it's ok to let him out. When I first had mine in the hamster ball, the female was gently biting at the ball to figure out what it was. Then she would swim aggressively (fast, not mean like ramming it) around the ball, then at the 3rd day, she would just hang around by it peacefully. At the end of the 3rd day, I let the little one out and they were perfectly fine. She didn't attack him. She bumped him a couple times softly, but didn't bite or ram him. I wouldn't leave the new one in a separate container for too long, the lack of waterflow can be harmful. Mine started to lose color in some areas, almost like velvet patches, so I let him out for that reason as well. The little one seems to be starting to wiggle dance too, but nothing has happened yet. I'm sure the stray lights in my room when I come home at night are throwing off their lighting schedule.

 

Man you peoples are lucky...
I want to pair my maroon up so badly, and i believe i understand the best way possible.
My maroon is about 3'' long. I think that i will purchase a maroon just about an 1'' long and place him in some sort of container that allows flow and has a hole at the top for feeding. I will watch how my maroon reacts and procedure accordingly.
Any other suggestions?

 

Don't even bother trying to feed the little guy that you will put into the container, he won't eat while in there. What I did was squirt 1ml of selcon into the hamster ball and let hi mabsorb the nutrients be taking in the water. 3" of maroon is still questionable whether it is male or female. It may turn out they bond as double males and not being a mating pair. Mine has turned very dark, which I read is a change that occurs when they turn female. Compare this image when mine was juvenile to how he is now in my icon:


Maroons are very strange in that way. That is why I waited so long to get a new one. I waited for mine to get huge and turn dark.

 

Thats awesome how much it changed. Im assuming the darker one is the female? Ill post a picture of my maroon later tonight; mine is quite red like the first picture you have. Hopefully its still male.