Weird Clown Fish Behavior

[polypaholic]

I just recently added two clown fish to my tank, and they always seem fine with each other but every now and then one of them starts twitching, looking like it has a seizure, is this normal with them or is something wrong with my fishy? I remember noticing in the store that I bought them the other two kept doing it whenever they played with each other.. thanks!

[guitardude]

I have seen this before. The twitching clown wants to make babies =)

edit: Just as a guess, if only one is twitching... is it the smaller of the two?

[polypaholic]

Oh really? That's interesting! Well they are both juvenile still, that's what the lady at the store said, and they both look about the same size so I'm not really sure..

[AquaMan91]

Interesting.......

[AquaMan91]

well my male clown did that once and now for some reason my female is sitting in behind the rocks in the little hole they had dug out. i hope there not having babies cuz i only got an 8 gallon nano and dont got space for babies. any thoughts

[fuzzybob4]

my clowns do that too.but they are only about 6 months old are they going to have babies I hope that they do but I'll need more information about how to take cair of them. Any ideas at all?

[usmc2b2004]

Mine did that too, I think it is more of a dominance display. I don't want to be quoted on that but that is what I think, It was always the smaller one that did it.

[Jadinop]

The twitching is a sign of submission and has nothing to do with actual mating. The first step of pair bonding for clowns is determining dominance. The clown that is constantly exhibiting the submissive twitching behavior will likely become the male of the pair. The larger dominant clown will change into a female over time. True pairing can take months to occur and even if you have an established pair it doesn't mean that they will ever proceed to spawning.

If you have even the slightest interest in clowns or breeding this is one of the best resources out there.

http://www.amazon.com/Clownfishes-Jo.../dp/1890087041

[ducatimikep]

Its a way to show submission to the female.

[bleachandvomit]

Actually, I've observed quite the opposite.

I recently gave my friend an extra nano tank i had set up that had one Ocellaris in it. She fell in love with a true perc at the pet store and bought it up. Shortly after introducing it to the tank, the Ocellaris (larger in comparison, but still a juvie) was definitely the dominant clown in a little battle they had. the smaller true perc was CLEARLY submissive HOWEVER the larger Ocellaris was the one doing the twitchy dance.

The Ocellaris displayed this behavior for around 20 minutes, there was no confusion as to what was happening.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to disprove anyone, I just found this extremely interesting. Who knows, maybe the larger was willing to be the male.

--

Edit- I just wanted to add that they were both males to begin with to the best of my knowledge. They were both the only clowns in the tank when purchased, I always thought this caused them to take on a female role by default, but two different LFS' told me they default to males or stay unsexed. If you could clear this up for me that would be awesome. Sorry for hijacking the thread.

[fishfarmer]

My smaller clown does the twitchy dance every time the big starts nipping at it.

[Lukel]

my smaller O.C. clown is exibiting this behaviour whenever the larger clown gets close... the larger clown has hosted my bubble tipped anemone and won't let the smaller clown near it... so i guess i will hafta see what heppenes next... this has been going on for the last 24 hours in my tank