Clown Fighting

bothfly · Mar 30, 2015

I posted a while back about my 2 Black and White OC fish fighting.
The bigger one, female will not let the smaller one, male even leave this cave he found. The Female chases the other fish in the tank as well. Its becoming an issue.
I have 2 Blue Reef Chromes, and a Royal Gamma. The Male Clown hangs out in the cave all day unless I'm feeding.
Can I add a 3rd Clown to mellow out the Female, or what should I do.
29 Gallon Bio Cube
Thanks

saltyphish · Mar 30, 2015

This is normal behavior between clownfish. The bigger one is the dominant female and the smaller a juvenile male. Have you witnessed the male kind of go sideways a little and appears like it is having a spasm? If you have that is the males submissive dance nothing to be alarmed about. The female will always bully the male once they are paired up. My female clown makes my male stay in the back left corner. As long as you don't see torn fins and such you should be ok. My female clown will swim next to my male all nice like and suddenly turn and smack him around.

saltyphish · Mar 30, 2015

I see the female is also chasing the other fish around. Is it only when they get close to the male or in the cave she keeps him in?

bothfly · Mar 30, 2015

Yes, I've seen the spasm thing.
The Female usually chases the other fish if they happen to swim by her. Nothing related to the male in the cave.
Thanks a bunch

Tahoe61 · Mar 30, 2015

Have you tried changing the scape at all? Sometime a nano is too small for an overly aggressive female clown, I have had it happen twice. One was a Maroon clown the other a Black/White Ocellaris. Both females would not allow the introduction of any inverts such as shrimp other fish.

bothfly · Mar 30, 2015

Tahoe61 said:
Have you tried changing the scape at all? Sometime a nano is too small for an overly aggressive female clown, I have had it happen twice. One was a Maroon clown the other a Black/White Ocellaris. Both females would not allow the introduction of any inverts such as shrimp other fish.

Yes, I have moved stuff around. What's weird is when I got these two they had been in a tank at the LFS for a month or so and had paired up. You could tell but they stayed ok together for a month or so in my tank then in the past few weeks plus is when I noticed the female going off.

Tahoe61 · Mar 30, 2015

There has been speculation that a female might not accept just any old male, for some reason she may find this particular male un-acceptable. Fin biting, chasing and shaking done by both female and male is normal. Occasional the female provides reminders of her dominance by being especially aggressive. If the male is not eating, hiding, breathing at the surface or corner, or torn fins than it is probably time to intervene.

Humblefish · Mar 30, 2015

saltyphish said:
This is normal behavior between clownfish. The bigger one is the dominant female and the smaller a juvenile male. Have you witnessed the male kind of go sideways a little and appears like it is having a spasm? If you have that is the males submissive dance nothing to be alarmed about. The female will always bully the male once they are paired up. My female clown makes my male stay in the back left corner. As long as you don't see torn fins and such you should be ok. My female clown will swim next to my male all nice like and suddenly turn and smack him around.

+1 Usually not a problem unless one of the males unexpectedly morphs into a female. This usually only happens if your pair are close in size and two females will "lock jaws" in combat.
However, life still ain't easy for a boy clownfish with big mama always bossing him around. :wink: My female maroon gets aggressive with the little male if he stops fanning the eggs.