clown attacking the other

[melonheadorion]

for a few months now, ive had 2 black and white clowns that i purchased at the same time. they werent in the same tank when i bought the, but they paired quite fast. there have been signs of the smaller male doing their twitch to the female for almost the whole time since. the female would occasionally dart at the male, or would nudge the male. nothing serious. up until today, where the female was being significantly more aggressive today. chasing him through the tank, biting, and doing it enough where all fins halfway down is damaged, including the tail fin, with white marks seen near the top of the body. hes not dying or anything, but he has significant fin damage on almost all fins.
i was able to catch the female, and seperated her into a mesh breeder, to at least get them seperated.

ive read that intense blue lighting has caused reactions like this with clowns, so ive added some white to the tank since ive seperated them. prior to this, and as of probably just a few days ago, i turned off the white light from the spectrum, so perhaps this is it?
ive also read that its just the nature of the clown. which is obviously the case, but if i allow it to take its course, one of two things will happen. one will be that the female stops the aggression, and everything goes back to normal, or the female bullies the male to death. the solution is to let things go and hopefully work itself out, or to split them up permanently.

i guess im looking to see what the consensus is with this. it just isnt a possibility to split them up, so i would prefer to keep them together, but also dont want one to die just for the case of clown fish behavior. i guess im hoping that i will mostly hear that it will just work itself out, but want to get everyones thoughts

 

[blaxsun]

I doubt it's the lighting - but who knows with clowns. You could try getting an anemone to see if that calms them down but it's no guarantee, either. The only other thing you could do is partition the tank in half with egg crate.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

The female is more than likely rejecting the male. She will probably kill it in the end if you don't separate it.

 

[BrianAnthony]

It's funny you mention the blue lighting. My one clown seemed to become aggressive when the blue lights were on exclusively. I believe this may be a valid point. It was also during the blue lights in the evening when my clown jumped the tank.

Now the bullying never led to fin damage... And it did settle down after a few months. My clowns are ocilarrius clowns.

If you are seeing damage and can't separate them...I would do a search on the internet for something that can physically separate them for their safety. I know they sell something like this. Perhaps an in tank breeder container..