Clownfish Behaviour

[sumpfinfishe]

Gujusted

Congrats on your pair, I see you got them at OA, you purchased some healthy, happy fish.

To answer your first question is a toughy as many different factors come in to play when trying to provide ideal currents. If you only have 25lbs of LR then I would say that there is lot's of swimming space available. Two 802's doe's seem like a quite a lot of flow for a 38gl in my opinion but that's just my opinion. I played with current in my 27gl for the last year and finally I am happy with the flow now. In my three foot tank I have a MJ 1200 that provides intermittent current every half hour, I also have a Mag3 connected to a SCWD to provide constant flow from the sump. My goal was to provide a steady flow that kept a wide variety of creatures happy, this meant that the flow had to be constant yet gentle enough to allow my poor swimming clowns and gobies to explore freely throughout the reef yet strong enough at times to flush away debris and bring food to corals and inverts. All of my fish have no problems swimming within my reef even during peek flow periods yet during these high flows there are always area's within the reef were they can retreat too if needed.

IMO I think that it's best to provide a medium current throughout the day and night with some low flow locations for the poor swimmers, and also to provide an intermittent high flow zone during the day to simulate tidal movements or wave action. So if I were you, I would maybe try running just one 802ph on constant 24-7 cycle while running the second on a timmer to provide intermittent flow throughout the day. If this flow is too much and all your fish are hiding in the rockwork or are flat against the glass then you might want to step the secondary 802ph down to a 402 or a MJ1200. As long as you can provide areas where the fish can retreat to during high flow then there should be no problems. In my case, when my intermittent MJ1200 comes on every half hour the clowns will move to a less flow area and others such as my six line and my chromis will be in full blast as to seem like they love to swim in the higher flow location.

As for the pecking it could be play, but I would guess that the more dominent female is setting the rules for her territory or she is making sure that the other clown turns male. The larger female will do this for a long time to come, making sure that the smaller male knows his role and keeps him in line.

If you haven't read Clownfishes by Joyce .W, I would highly reccomend it- it's a must read and own for anyone who plans on keeping clowns.

Happy clowning around!