Clown getting feisty and attacking my hand!

[Roca1357]

I've had my pair of clowns for about 7 months now. They were tiny when I got them as all of you can imagine. Since then they have almost doubled in length and tripled in girth. At this point I'm confident of gender as one has become much more dominate than the other so "it" went to "she" and so Pearl was my girlfriends name for her. Subsequently I gave Diamante his name.

Anyways, something funny happened today. I was doing my water change and as I moved over the left side of the tank where they normally hang out Pearl attacked me and bit me a few times. For being so tiny she actually hurt a little haha. That was the first time one of them was aggressive at my hand. I've noticed them nipping at a particular spot repeatedly over the past 3 days. So maybe they are looking to go from a bonded pair to mated pair. That would be something though I am in now way prepared to deal with clownfish eggs and they would subsequently all die. Maybe a reason to convince my girlfriend that I NEED another tank haha

So I just found the vicious attack hilarious today and wondered if people have this happen to them before with clowns or any other fish?

 

[cromag27]

Get used to it!

 

[4FordFamily]

I've been bit by most clownfish over the years they nip at anything in their territory it's pretty common. Ocellaris and percula perhaps the least likely to nip although I've had a couple ocellaris that did over the years

 

[nemo1017]

Wear gloves if it bothers you too much, I do. Mine draws blood, gets my between my knuckles if I'm not wearing gloves.

 

[ksanfranfan]

I have a black and white clown in my small tank. It'll chase my hand throughout while I'm doing maintenance nipping and biting constantly.
In my main display I have 2 true percs that have been a mated pair since 2004. They've never showed any aggression toward me even if I'm close to their frogspawn which they host and lay eggs close to.
Clownfish temperament always veries. Like Nemo said, I have to wear gloves when doing maintenance in my smaller tank with the black and white clown. The biting gets irritating and salt stings in open wounds.

 

[cmcoker]

I too have to wear gloves now for tank maintenance... Just wait til they start to spawn, that's when mine got real feisty. She bites and tugs the gloves

 

[Nibejeebies]

I've been bit by most clownfish over the years they nip at anything in their territory it's pretty common. Ocellaris and percula perhaps the least likely to nip although I've had a couple ocellaris that did over the years

Oddly enough, I have two tanks, one has 2 ocellaris which Have recently began nipping and biting me. The other has a mated marron pair, and they dont bite, they seem like they 'nussle' my hand and the female will swim through my fingers some times like shes preforming tricks.

 

[FishLover01]

I have the same problem in one of my tanks. In it is a 3 stripe damsel which is probably one of the most aggressive damsels. This fish constantly charges at my arm but blood has never been drawn. I just watch out for him-lol. I've had him for a couple of years and apparently he still doesn't like me too good-lol.

 

[11cmortarman]

My female clownfish is evil. Actually Im probably in the minority but I hate clownfish.