Arrrghhh! Stupid clownfish keep commiting suicide!

[ScubaSteve]

Originally Posted by Ryan7

All previous posts aside.

I think the reason you are having soo many of the clowns jump is due to the size of the tank and maybe how it is aquascaped.

Regardless of whether you have had success in the past with this size of tank and clowns, and all the others who claim the same, it is a very small area for the fish to react to each other.

Even if the are paired together, the non-aggressive dance they can perform leads them into quick darts and short chases within the area.

Likely one clown is reacting to the other by darting aside, but with no room to dart to, it sadly ends up going up and out of the tank.

If you insist for your tank to work for you, might I suggest the following;

-upon adding another new clown, rearrange your aquascape a little, this may help as neither fish would have a pre-claimed territory, and will likely look to each other for safety.
-if the clowns tend to huddle toward a certain area of the tanks top corner, try suspending small rocks there for them if possible.
-debating on the tank size, often another fish can take the clowns focus away from each other and on the 3rd tankmate, although it should be less aggressive then the clowns themselves and something that is not a purching fish but a swimmer.
-not sure if its possible with your system or concept, but an anemone could help also??
-you are doing the right thing by having one larger then the other, continue this.

Better luck in the future.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Ya, I've rearranged the rocks a bit each time I added a new fish to avoid territorial issues. Again, other than the typical squabble between the first pair I haven't seen any aggression amongst the others (and like I said, I sit next to the tank all day and night... but then again, it does only take one fateful charge when I'm not watching). And oddly, aside from one small clown (the first to go) it seems to be the bigger ones that have jumped in the back or out of the tank. I really don't think they're running from a submissive, smaller fish (I do see the smaller fish doing their weird seizure/submission dance). I'm not saying it's not aggression, just saying I haven't seen any signs that that has been the issue.

You're right though, it could be their regular dance, or even the vigor with which they go after food.

I have been considering adding both a dither fish of some sort and an anemone. The nem will come in a couple months; I wanted to make sure the tank was rock solid before adding that. As for fish, I thought about adding a clown goby... something that wouldn't dominate the tank, tends to be bold enough to hang out in the open and there are a bunch of SPS colonies to perch in... but it's a percher and I wasn't sure if that do the trick. Thoughts? I had a six-line wrasse in the past with the maroons and... it worked ok but both of those fish have strong personalities. I want to keep this tank more peaceful and let the clowns have the run of the joint.

[Ryan7]

A good dither fish might be a cardinal? they swim in open water, and shouldn't be aggressive if there is only one.

An Azure Damsel could also work (bule damsel with yellow belly, not the the yellow tailed ones) I have found these to be the only non-aggressive damsels, but might act differently in small systems.

Other then that maybe a chromis (bicolour or blackbar tend to accept a little less swimming room then typical greens, and are more related to damsels when it comes to eating. Greens tend to want to be fed like anthias, which may be difficult in small systems.

I think an anemone would be a good bet once they adopt it, it would stop the clowns from hovering in top corner of the tank together (I don't know why but they always seem to do that instead of finding a home in the rocks) it will give them some more room away from the surface when they do their thing.