Clown fish seizure

My bigger clown fish does this once in a or once a day has like a small seizure and does a weird shaking the sand and shoot sand everywhere or around the other clown fish. Is it trying to mate, also how can i tell if it male / female? Thank you.

 

You can't tell by looking at it except the bigger fish should be your female. The seizure like activity you are explaining is a dominance issue. It is trying to show dominance or could be looking for a good place to lay eggs. Is it doing it in the same place every time?

 

Yes in the sand its general doing it within the same 8 inches. I have two random clown fish, what are the odds ones a male and ones a female? Also they are two different species of clown.

 

Clownfish can change their sex so the bigger one always becomes the female and the smaller the male. Once one is established as dominant the other will change to male.

 

I have two false perculas. The smaller male does the seizure thang.

 

This isn't a seizure. Clownfish do this, and so do certain other fish. As for why, I don't know, but I suspect it's renovation. Sometimes it's just to hollow out a corner to create a place to sleep. I had a large maroon clown that I decided to take back to the LFS when I changed over from FOWLR to reef because of his incessant excavations. I didn't want LR mounds to tumble once I owned corals, and the maroon was just to much of a risk. After moving enough sand with this technique, LR might become unstable and tumble.

 

My new little guy Wiggles is doing this each night to sleep[digging a hole], but it is covering up part of the zoa I just put there. I need to evelavate it I guess.

 

If they are two different types of clowns, there might be problems. It sounds like they are trying to determine dominancy. Whoever wins might kill the other since they cannot mate. Most of the time two different or more than two of the same will fight and kill.

 

I was told that two different species could possible mate. I have 2 different ones and they do great together. Both of mine do the "seizure" thing. The smaller one mainly to show submission but the larger also does it!

 

Females do not change back to males. If they are both female, one will more then likely parish.