Maroon Clownfish pairing

[adbreefer]

Hello BAR,
Probably 4 months ago, I bought a pair of maroon clownfish, one lightning and one gold bar. The lightning was bigger and rejected her pairing, and now I am not sure how to approach buying another mate. Should I buy a significantly larger clown event hough my lightning has established itself as a female, or should I try to buy another smaller male for my current female. I know pairing maroons is difficult, but I know that there are some experts please feel free to giv eoyu r advice/opinion!

 

[Corallus]

I've done this! Here's how it worked out for me...

I'd had my gold bar maroon for about a year, and she was getting to a decent size in my display. I picked up another small gold bar, QT'd him for about 2 months, by this time he was eating and looking great. Added him to the display where the larger one lived. Luckily, I was able to get the little one out before she killed him. Back into the 10 gal QT he went, and in about a month he was looking better. Pulled the big one out of the display and added her to the QT with the little male. After a couple of days moved both of them to the display. They've been paired up since and spawn on the back of the tank pretty frequently.

My experience pairing territorial, pair bonding fish goes like this. Have 2 of different enough sizes that they don't need to fight for dominance. Make sure they are both eating, healthy and used to living in their separate tanks - with multiple hiding spots. When you're ready, add the large one to the small one's tank, and watch for a couple of days. Move them together to their final tank. This has worked for me with maroon clowns, a couple types of damsels, orchid dottybacks and pygmy angels. I had no luck with watchman gobies. Every time will be unique, fish are impossible to predict.

It's more work than just throwing a new fish in the tank and hoping it's OK, but I really like having pairs and small groups of fish, when I can. To me, their behavior seems much more natural.

 

[Wlachnit]

Perhaps just stating the obvious here, but once a clown becomes female, it is terminal. So, you should always introduce a juvenile or male.
JUVENILE -> MALE -> FEMALE

 

[xcaret]

Assuming the clown in the tank is the female, you can introduce the smaller clown in a clear container; will take a few days but nature does its thing.
The container has to be large enough and drilled with holes. The larger fish will go territorial towards the new tank mate and try to get a piece of it but will get used to it and accept the mate.