Maroon clown problem

Srh444 · May 14, 2024

Hello,

I've had my maroon clown for 16 months and have got attached to it as it's the first fish I bought. However, I have noticed that it has been picking on my bta's. I have three bta's, a green one, a rose gold and a tri colour. In the last 24 hours I've noticed that the clown has tried to host the green bta. All three of them are on the same rock, the green one is the smallest and settled under the rock.
The rose and tricolour are on the top.

I've noticed today that the green one looks really battered and deflated and also the tricolour one. In fact, the tricolour looked so bad I thought it wasn't going to make it, this one is also the largest about 6 inches across. However, I've now put the clown in a breeding trap. I don't really want to take the clown to my LFS but at the same time I don't want them picking on my bta's. Since putting the clown in the trap the bta's are all open again.

I'm not quite sure what I should do, keep the clown and risk losing one or two bta's or take him/her to the LFS. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance, Steve

TX_REEF · May 14, 2024

how big are the clown and the nems? Maroons can be very rough on their hosts, a large clown or a small nem (or a combo of both) can definitely take a toll on the nems. Not sure what your situation is, but you could move the maroon or the BTA to a different tank? I have 2 maroons in my frag tank that ignore my BTA and prefer a rock.

Srh444 · May 15, 2024

TX_REEF said:
how big are the clown and the nems? Maroons can be very rough on their hosts, a large clown or a small nem (or a combo of both) can definitely take a toll on the nems. Not sure what your situation is, but you could move the maroon or the BTA to a different tank? I have 2 maroons in my frag tank that ignore my BTA and prefer a rock.

The clown is about 3 inches. The green bta about 3 inches. The rose bta about 4 inches and the tricolour 6 inches. I only have the one tank that's the problem. I've isolated the clown at the mo so the bta's have a rest. My dilemma is do I keep my clown or is it safer to take him to the LFS. I don't want my bta's to keep getting attacked, but I also don't want to get rid of my clown as he was the first fish I bought. Not sure what to do really?