Im confused

[littlefoxx]

I cant get a picture right now cause my male clarkii is camera shy, but Im 99% sure my stripped damsel killed his female and is trying to take her place. He keeps hovering over the male clown. My female gas been MIA for a few days now. Anyone seen anything like that?

 

[Thalasstronaut]

No personal experience, but damsels and clowns belong to the same family, I believe. And some clowns will cross species lines in pairing, I wonder how far up the family tree that extends. At least in the sense that the damsel would see a clown as a like fish and behave as it would towards one of its own species.

 

[littlefoxx]

No personal experience, but damsels and clowns belong to the same family, I believe. And some clowns will cross species lines in pairing, I wonder how far up the family tree that extends. At least in the sense that the damsel would see a clown as a like fish and behave as it would towards one of its own species.

Yeah I knew they were both damsels but this is the first time Ive had a damsel and a clarkii look very similar before. Never kept clarkiis but Im wondering if because they are so close my damsel took her out and is trying to claim the male? Stripe (the damsel) was slightly larger than my female clarkii.

 

[KrisReef]

Interesting.

 

[Cheese Griller]

I would highly doubt that the damsel is trying to pair with the Clarkii, since striped damsels do not exhibit monogamous pairing, rather one male can have multiple females in his territory that will lay eggs for him. So if the damsel was a female, she would not have any reservations about sharing a mate within his territory.

The damsel’s behavior now could be a dominance display, but it’s pretty hard to tell without a video.

 

[littlefoxx]

I would highly doubt that the damsel is trying to pair with the Clarkii, since striped damsels do not exhibit monogamous pairing, rather one male can have multiple females in his territory that will lay eggs for him. So if the damsel was a female, she would not have any reservations about sharing a mate within his territory.

The damsel’s behavior now could be a dominance display, but it’s pretty hard to tell without a video.

Ill try to get a video. The damsel is acting weird as hell with him. Also I swear its gotten noticeably bigger since it killed my female clarkii

 

[Cheese Griller]

Ill try to get a video. The damsel is acting weird as hell with him. Also I swear its gotten noticeably bigger since it killed my female clarkii

It getting larger is totally understandable as now it has competition of a similar size in the tank that requires it to bulk up to be larger than (and therefore more dominant). At this point it’s probably dominance, but a video will help solidify my opinion!