WS maroon intank 5months can I add a GS maroon

[Neal]

I've had my 1 1/2" white stripe maroon clown in my 150 reef for 5 months. I tried to add another 1 1/2" maroon a couple of days ago and it wasn't pretty 8O I beleive hes claimed the tank as his. So is it possible to even add another maroon. was it just that they were the same size?
What if I tried a Gold stripe maroon half its size. Would it even accept a mateor is he just happy running the tank alone. In witch case he'll have to be removed.

 

[Juck]

Odds are the other maroon you added was a female (so is the one in your tank after 5 months alone) and well,, these things rarely work out.

Maroons are aggressive clowns,,,, you must find a smaller white stripe maroon juvenile. Add him to the tank in a breeder bag or some other container so the established fish can bang her head against it for a couple of days.

The aggression should subside after 2 or 3 days and you can let the little feller out,, there may be a bit of nipping and chasing but nothing as bad as what you've probably already witnessed.

If the little one shakes violently in submission then the female should back off,, this is a good thing and something you'll see a lot of in a successful pairing.

What you don't want to see is the little one making a run for the hills and hiding in the rocks, because the female will likely chase him and maul him.

I would strongly advise against trying to pair a GSM with a white stripe,,, I'm sure it may have worked once or twice but I'd bet a lot of the time it ends in a dead or badly injured fish.

A juvenile Gold stripe doesn't have a gold stripe and looks just like a juvenile white stripe,,,, I can say from personal experience that a female gold stripe can tell the difference.

 

[Anonymous]

I have a male gold stripe with a female white stripe maroon clown. GS maroons are supposedly less aggressive, so I think it'd be a good idea to try a small juvenile with a resident female. You really need to have a huge disparity in size with maroons. The female should be twice the size of the male if possible. You may have problems finding a juvenile that small.

"I would strongly advise against trying to pair a GSM with a white stripe,,, I'm sure it may have worked once or twice but I'd bet a lot of the time it ends in a dead or badly injured fish."

What are you basing this on?

 

[Juck]

>>What are you basing this on?

Experience. I ordered 2 GS Juveniles from Saltwaterfish.com for pairing with 2 adult female GS I already had.

No matter what I did I couldn't get the females to accept the juveniles,,, the females wouldn't stop attacking, no matter how long I kept the them isolated within the tanks before release.

I gave up, traded in the female GS for some cardinals and put the two juveniles in my 37g,, figured at least they'd pair up,, and so they did,, because they turned out to be WS maroons,,, the company I bought them from sent me the wrong bloody fish,,, I thought the white lines looked a little thicker than they normally were on a juvenile GS,, but never thought anything of it. Anyway, over a year later and they're happy and spawning regularly in a friend's tank.

I'd paired up GS females with GS juveniles a couple of times before without any great problem,, I even raised a couple of batches,,,, but attempting to pair them with WS juveniles didn't work for me at all.

 

[Anonymous]

Sounds like Neal is thinking about trying the opposite of your situation. I don't see why it wouldn't work. You want the juvenile to be as passive as possible, and GS are apparently a little less aggressive.