Aggressive Clownfish Behavior after Laying Eggs

[AnAngryDruggist]

I have a Red Sea Reefer 170 reef tank with a mated pair of black ocellaris clowns. I got them second hand, and they’re of a decent size (male is ~2.5 inches, female is ~3 inches). Previous owner was not sure of their age. Other fish inhabitants include Midas blenny, long nose hawk fish, yellow watchman goby, royal gramma, and banggai cardinal fish.

It took a while to get to a state of fish peacefulness in my tank, but I finally got there about two months ago with the current mix of fish. Aside from some small territorial displays from the female clown when new fish were introduced, I had the tank to a point where I observed no aggression whatsoever between inhabitants. Of note, the two clownfish and the banggai were very social with each other. The three of them would even sleep together in the same corner of the tank at night.

Flash forward to 3 days ago, I noticed the banggai was in distress at the top corner of my tank. After more observation, I noticed that both clowns were picking on the poor banggai. By the time I realized what was occurring, it was nearly lights-out time, so I tried to give the fish some time in the dark overnight to calm down and figure it out. Unfortunately, the next day the behavior was even worse. My banggai’s fins got pretty ripped up. Based on the saltwater dried on the outside of my tank from splashing, I’m convinced the banggai would have jumped the tank and would be dead if I didn’t have a lid. At this point, I moved the banggai down to my sump where he has been chilling and recovering in peace and quiet ever since.

Needless to say, I was perplexed by how the clowns who were so peaceful with the banggai could suddenly turn violent toward him. Come to find out, after I noticed some other behavior changes, that the clowns made the largest cave in my rockwork their nest with eggs affixed to the cave ceiling.

I can only assume that the reason for the behavior change toward the banggai was the eggs. I’m wondering is it normal for clownfish to change their behavior when they have eggs? It there anything I can do here to help the situation? I imagine I can’t stop them from laying eggs, and from the other threads I’m reading, it’s possible they’re going to be laying every 2 weeks or so indefinitely

Will my banggai ever be able to go back to the display tank? If it comes to it I’ve got several local reefer friends who would happily rehome him to their much larger tanks.

Any insights and advice is appreciated.

 

[The_Paradox]

You can’t turn a mean clown nice, once a nice clown goes mean it’s gone forever.

That’s my experience.

 

[D-Nak]

Black and white ocellaris are the meanest of the ocellaris/percula species, and it only gets worse when they start to lay eggs.

Do they have a host anemone? I've found that having one helps to "calm" them down. They tend to hover close the anemone and only leave for food or when threatened (though they typically dive into the anemone).

If you don't care about the eggs and you're able to do so, if you can move the cave to a corner of the tank that may give the Banggai more space on the opposite end.

 

[AnAngryDruggist]

Black and white ocellaris are the meanest of the ocellaris/percula species, and it only gets worse when they start to lay eggs.

Do they have a host anemone? I've found that having one helps to "calm" them down. They tend to hover close the anemone and only leave for food or when threatened (though they typically dive into the anemone).

If you don't care about the eggs and you're able to do so, if you can move the cave to a corner of the tank that may give the Banggai more space on the opposite end.

Thanks for that information. I had no idea there were temperament differences between the different clown species aside from maroons, so that’s really good to know. They do not have a host anemone, and I was trying to avoid introducing one since I’m working with a smaller tank and I was worried about the anemone zapping my corals. But I’ll definitely consider adding one if it will help the clowns to feel more secure