Clownfish goes nuts to the other clown when i change the light

[Harold999]

Okay, something new here. When i suddenly change the light color, or the intensity, the female clowns goes nuts to the smaller male. Trying to kill him.
The smaller male is really like what the heck are you doing? He's scared as h.

As soon as i change the color or intensity back everything goes back to normal and she loves him again.

Sound familiar?

 

[littlefoxx]

Okay, something new here. When i suddenly change the light color, or the intensity, the female clowns goes nuts to the smaller male. Trying to kill him.
The smaller male is really like what the heck are you doing? He's scared as h.

As soon as i change the color or intensity back everything goes back to normal and she loves him again.

Sound familiar?

Never experienced that… clowns are so weird

 

[dstockwell]

clowns are so weird

Yep

 

[MoshJosh]

Sleeper agent clown activated by a specific color spectrum. . .

 

[coralization]

Was just about to post the same question, then saw this thread.

My larger clown goes wildebeast mode when I added blue light only to my setup (pre & post full) but is perfectly fine under full spectrum. It’s like an on/off crazy switch…

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

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

 

[coralization]

Clowns are institutionally racist…

 

[Trent H]

My clown is also very sensitive once I accidentally turned my wave maker up and she swam to back and fell to the sand she also does this anytime I spook her with my hands in the tank or anything she’s very shy and will pretend to be dead…. It last about 30 seconds then she back to normal…. It can be scary

 

[Kiboshed]

My clown is also very sensitive once I accidentally turned my wave maker up and she swam to back and fell to the sand she also does this anytime I spook her with my hands in the tank or anything she’s very shy and will pretend to be dead…. It last about 30 seconds then she back to normal…. It can be scary

Wow that almost sounds like Clownfish Myotonia congenita (fainting goat disease).

 

[Kzang]

I bought 2 non bonded pair of longfin black ice clownfish. Under blues, they were cool. If I turned it to whites, they bit and locked mouths fighting each other. Turned back into blue, and they stopped. I was trying to record it, and kept the white on for too long, and they didn't forget they were fighting that time.

I eventually put the peaceful one in a mushroom box, and the aggressive one tried to kill it still. I ended up putting the aggressive one in the box, and it almost immediately started the vibration submission dance. So now they are bonded with the original peaceful one as the dominant one.