Blue light triggers territorial behavior in my clownfish?

[DiegoGC89]

Hi everyone

I've been recently intrigued and worried by one of my two clownfish.

I've had them for 1 year and 4 months, and I've never used the blue light mode in my lamp, only the white & blue combination since then. Now that I have a wonderful Condy anemone, I tried to use the blue light the other day, but this just happened, and got me worried about the other clownfish:

Is this normal, even though they have already been together for over a year?

 

[metromike]

Have you had them both the entire time?

 

[DiegoGC89]

Have you had them both the entire time?

Correct, but never used this light mode, and the very very few times I got to it I saw the same clownfish going to the other but never left the light for this long. Actually, I turned the light back to the mode I always use to avoid stress for the one who was "attacked"

 

[metromike]

Does the fish getting attacked ever “shiver” and or “shake”????

 

[DiegoGC89]

Does the fish getting attacked ever “shiver” and or “shake”????

Yes, more than once, but was always with this light mode since I have them

 

[metromike]

If the fish being attacked shivers or shakes - then it’s the typical more dominant fish Turning female and the less dominant fish accepting of the dominant female

 

[DiegoGC89]

If the fish being attacked shivers or shakes - then it’s the typical more dominant fish Turning female and the less dominant fish accepting of the dominant female

Ok then, since they've never been with this blue light for more than 5 mins in their entire time with me, should I let this keep going next time I turn on the blue light? I mean, he never shivered or anything during this 1st time I let the blue light on for 5 minutes maximum, but I wasn't sure if the other fish could actually hurt him or if it was going to be a matter of time and patience until he shivers and the "attack" stops?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Clownfish use lighting and coloration to determine social hierarchy- the different lighting may make one or both of the clowns look more/less attractive and be causing conflict:

For anyone curious, clownfish determine social hierarchy/desirability in large part by coloration (I'd heard it said by breeders trying to cross clownfish morphs that "clowns are racist" and it turns out it's actually kind of true).

My guess (I don't know for sure if it's accurate, but it seems plausible to me) is that the change in lighting drastically alters how the male clown looks to the female - if it makes it look substantially less desirable, then the female may be trying to drive it off in hopes of finding a more attractive partner; if it makes it look substantially more desirable, it may be causing the female to try and assert dominance through aggression rather than coloration.

Fun fact for anyone interested here, the UV reflectance of clownfish is also related to intraspecific aggression and their social hierarchy.***

***Source:

Higher ultraviolet skin reflectance signals submissiveness in the anemonefish, Amphiprion akindynos

When signaling submission, it is important to wave the “white flag.” In the Barrier Reef anemonefish, ultraviolet color patterns serve to signal submissive

academic.oup.com