Need advice on clownfish

ess · #1 03-27-2013, 04:26 AM

After almost a month of living together in peace my bigger O. clownfish is attacking the smaller one almost mercilessly. This does not seem like the typical show of dominance where the bigger one just wants to show who's boss. Small O. is just hiding in the back corner of the tank now, but Big O. keeps going back there and beating him up a bit then coming back and swimming around then going and coming and so on. Before this the bigger fish was chasing the small one around. I know the little one is a boy. The bigger one I assumed was a girl since they were getting along fine before this but now I'm not sure. She/he was living alone before I acquired her/him. I added the bigger one just under a month ago and the smaller one 4 days later. Prior to this sudden aggression, like I said things were fine, and the smaller one would "shimmy" for the bigger one and they would swim together (usually the smaller one just following the big one) and I thought they were pretty much paired up. But now I'm scared the little guy is gonna get bullied to death. Should I separate them? Only way I could do this is if I put bigger one in my other tank, but there's a clown in there too... (even bigger than this one, and he's a male) so I don't know how that will work out. Advice??

ess · #2 03-27-2013, 06:34 AM

Hey I just thought of a possible cause of this sudden change in attitude. I just added a new light fixture today. Is it possible the female doesn't recognize him anymore under the different light...?

The Guy · #3 03-27-2013, 08:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ess

Hey I just thought of a possible cause of this sudden change in attitude. I just added a new light fixture today. Is it possible the female doesn't recognize him anymore under the different light...?

That could be possible? I would take the smaller one out before the larger one kills it. IMO.

mike31154 · #4 03-27-2013, 04:10 PM

No experience with O. clowns, but my Maroon pair took a week or two to get sorted out. They were both juveniles close to the same size, I added the second a few months after the first. First one was hosted in a BTA when I added #2. It was tough to watch, but the newcomer had room to escape the dominant #1 & didn't sustain much in the way of injury. Anyhow, they got sorted & it took over a year for them to begin spawning.

I'd say keep an eye on them for a bit longer. Provided the bullied O. doesn't get beat up or injured to the point where he can't escape, they will probably get sorted within a week or two at the most.