Aggressive clownfish, will she get along with Mandarin Dragonet

Blake423 · Sep 22, 2021

Hi all,

My tank is 255L(about 67 gallon) and plenty of places to hide and have a clownfish (not sure if she is ocellaris or percula), a blue tang and a fire goby (Nemateleotris magnifica).
But my fire goby just died yesterday, she had been hiding and not eating for a while. I think she was being bullied by the clown fish and she is not the first fish bully by the clown fish. The blue tang is fine.
That evil clown fish is the first fish I got for my old small tank(30L), and then she bullied a scooter blenny and her partner, and then she fought a dottyback and she won! Then I upgraded my tank to 255L and think she will be fine with other fish given that the tank is way bigger. Somehow she still bullies smaller size fish.
I think clown fish is classified as semi-aggressive, but somehow I think my is particularly aggressive.
Also, I plan to have a mandarin dragonet. Anybody have similar experience? Does your clown fish bully other smaller fishes? Any way to train her?

blaxsun · Sep 22, 2021

My clownfish always ignored the mandarins (they stink and don't taste good).

Bear Claw · Oct 16, 2021

My clowns don't care about my mandarin goby. Even if they did the goby could just go disappear in the rocks. I'd say go for it!

SDK · Oct 16, 2021

You should be fine with the longer tank. Mature female Occelaris clowns will aggressively defend their territory, but depending on the rockwork, this can be about or somewhat less than one square foot.

Based on numerous posts, the two biggest mistakes I see being made here:

Adding two similarly sized clowns at the same time and expecting them to easily just pair off

Adding clowns to Nano sized tanks and then trying to add other small fish to the mix.

Unless the Blue Tang was also bullying the goby and driving it into the clowns small territory I doubt that the clown killed it. I’ve had Occelaris in 6 and 8 foot tanks and they would not leave their small territory, even for food. My current pair live in a patch of BTA’s and are never more than 2” away from the tentacles.