Can a clownfish be taught NOT to bite the hand that feeds it?

[SHINYSuccubus]

i have an evil tempered maroon/gold clown named Caitlyn who’s abt 8yrs old. she ripped her mate to pieces right in the front of the tank when she was abt 1.5yrs. after that i didn’t even attempt to find her a mate, she seems to prefer having an anemone all to herself anyway. i have other clowns (not maroons!) but they stay well away from Caitlyn and ”her” nem.

rn, while all my fish are being held hostage at my lfs, the ‘normal’ clowns r in a different tank. Caitlyn, who is nem-less rn, shares a 29g w my dwarf angel, Vulcan.

Caitlyn will charge anyone or anything that approaches her territory, and loves to draw some blood (imo)!

We’ll see if her attitude changes when she gets into a larger tank, but i’m not holding my breath!!

 

[SHINYSuccubus]

My 18 year old clarkii has bitten chunks off my knuckles. It really stings when she gets the skin between the fingers. She strikes faster than a snake and is ridiculously accurate. Every time it bleeds quite a bit and stings like heck. There’s no dodging it either she’s so fast. She will zip out from under a rock and be back in hiding before I know what hit me. Now if I need to work around where she likes to hang out, I’ll move quickly and often will have to just drop a net in the water which is usually enough to keep her scared into hiding.

The anthias and big foxface swarm my hand as well but not from aggression, I’ve got them trained to feed from my hand so every time I put my hand in the tank they think I have a pinch of food to nibble

i gotta say this doesn’t give me much hope concerning Caitlyn, my vicious Maroon/Gold. She’s 8ish, i was hoping she’d mellow w age. HA!

 

[Treefer32]

My fish all swarm my fingers when I'm feeding. My Creole anthia has actually taken my hole finger in his mouth. As to Clowns, my darwin clown is the meanest. I have 2 orange and white oscillaris and 1 Black and White Darwin. The darwin is mean! Attacks me whenever I scrape the glass or do anything in the tank. I may not even be close to him, he'll swim over and bite. Mean codger!

 

[editour2]

I have a pair of Barbieri Clowns and anytime I am anywhere near them in the tank they will attack and bite my hand...it's annoying.

 

[pbenjbear2]

Have an orange pair 2 years old - the most chill fish ever. But then there was my Domino clown pair which we referred to as "the D$#Ks" - totally bullies, both of them and they would nip me whenever I was doing tank cleans.

 

[velvetelvis]

That's a maroon for you! I had one that would leap out of an open tank to defend her BTA.

 

[DHill6]

Previous Tomato clown was a she devil, but hard and drew blood. New to hobby then and learnt a lesson. The white Wyoming I have now used to bite to warn off the hand at first. She’s now 12 yrs and giving fishy kisses. Swims next to arm or hand.

 

[DHill6]

I also had a young pair of little ocellaris who turned out to be reef wreckers and sharks. Removed SPS from rocks, drag and dumped across the tank. Put your hand in the tank, across they came, jaws music playing in my mind ); They were rehomed along with their anemone, some little fishies are angry

 

[ZoWhat]

What is this? A dog and pony post? Lol

 

[KellyGee]

I have two longfin clowns - absolutely beautiful. But the female… she got renamed to Madam President because she’s an butt and rules our tank. Bullies our Foxface and mandarin dragonet! The Foxface she is pretty mean and aggressive towards, the dragonet she pushes out of wherever he’s trying to graze, Madam kind of shoved her head under his belly and pushes him away from her little boy. I’ve tried swatting at her and she just puffs her little cheeks out at me and swims aggressively towards my hand!

 

[Timfish]

Yup, several over the years. Worst was a big female percula that knew the skin between my fingers was softer. Whenever I had to get in the tank she would hover around waiting to strike. Surprisingly she drew blood a couple times. :/

 

[immaman2011]

I just seen the smaller male shiver to the female. I never seen him do it before but now I know which is which lol. The male shivering to the female is supposedly the male telling the female she's dominant. Awesome to see it.

 

[Crevalle]

My cinnamon clowns attack my arm every time it goes in.

 

[eric-atl]

For over 2 years, the male would bite me constantly, but the female never would. Then, one day, it was like a switch was flipped and they reversed. Now she always does and he doesn't.

She's a lot bigger. Wish they'd switch back.

 

[Opus]

A good flush took care of it.

 

[JustinMN18]

My pair of perculas in one tank couldn't care less about my hands. They'd eat right out of them. My Ocellaris pair are savages though. If I don't wear gloves they go nuts. The moment the gloves are on, they leave me alone lol

 

[Billdogg]

Although my current pair don't, I had a yellow strip maroon the OWNED a 60 cube. It's anemone was at top center of the tank and not getting attacked on water change day became quite the challenge. Drew blood on my many times. I took to chasing it into the rocks with my python siphon tube and then learned to work fast.

 

[ARCkeeper]

I currently have 5 clowns in 3 tanks - 2 pairs of ocellaris and a lone percula. They all get anxious when I work around their anemones but none have bitten me. A fire clown I had in a prior setup is a different story. I didn't even have to get near her anemone. As soon as my hand entered the the tank she began attacking. She always drew blood and seemed to know exactly where to bite. She tended to do drive-bys on my knuckles, but if she got hold of the web between my thumb and index finger she clamped on and shook it like a little orange pitbull. My kids said she was part of the insane clownfish posse. Despite regularly trying to kill me, she never bothered other fish, even new additions to the tank.

 

[tamanning]

My 18 year old clarkii has bitten chunks off my knuckles. It really stings when she gets the skin between the fingers. She strikes faster than a snake and is ridiculously accurate. Every time it bleeds quite a bit and stings like heck. There’s no dodging it either she’s so fast. She will zip out from under a rock and be back in hiding before I know what hit me. Now if I need to work around where she likes to hang out, I’ll move quickly and often will have to just drop a net in the water which is usually enough to keep her scared into hiding.

The anthias and big foxface swarm my hand as well but not from aggression, I’ve got them trained to feed from my hand so every time I put my hand in the tank they think I have a pinch of food to nibble

Mine draws blood as well. Only the larger one and wasn't always like that.

 

[EndAllTyres-Hoon]

My clown bite at me at the thought of putting my hand in the tank, it’s to the point they have trained the lawnmower Blenny to do the same thing he bites at me when ever I’m in the tank