That's actually quite fascinating. At approximately what age will they,
shall we say, develop a gender? Does this phenomenon apply to all species of
clown fish?

--
Rastus O'Dingha
Wainwright AB
"Dragon Slayer" wrote in message
...
clown fish are born as an "it" and as they mature the more dominate will
become female and the second in line will become a male. the others will
remain it's until the male/female is lost or they move off on their own
(in
the ocean anyways). your more dominate (the larger now) became female
and
grew to the larger size, the 2nd in line was the only other you had in the
tank and became a male.

so yes its safe to say you now have a matted pair. if you add another to
the tank (if not already matured into male or female) it will be an it
until
something happens to one of your existing clowns. if its already
developed
into a female (so its seams males can revert to females but not vise
versa)
then you will have a fight on hand if your tank isn't quite large enough
with another host for the new addition. if the female is lost by death or
any means, the male will become female and the next in line will become
male.

hth
kc

"Joey P" wrote in message
om...
I bought 2 of Sri Lanki (sp) clown fish about 3 years ago. At the time
the were both about 1 inch in size. Since then one of the fish has
grown to almost 3 inches. The other has grown to about 1.5 inches.
They are constantly together in an anemone and protect eachother. I
often see them trying to build a nest in the substrate. Is it safe to
say I have a mated pair here?? Is the female the larger of the pair?