Dominant bully Clarkii Clownfish

Clarkii82

New Member
View Badges
Joined
Jun 29, 2021
Messages
16
Reaction score
64
Location
United Kingdom
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Hi all.

So I have a problem Clarkii Clownfish (female) that has exerted dominance on my 190L AquaOne tank.

I’d like to try stock my tank up so I know I need to remove the Clarkii. I am however quite attached to it.

Back story;

Its proved be an costly lesson as I spot / realise what the problem was. In Aug 2018, I purchase two Clarkii’s (male and female) at the same time and they got on happily for some months.

In the 12 months after buying the Clarkii’s I’ve purchase and lost the following;

Cleaner Shrimp
Indo Firefish / Dartfish
3x Green Chromis
Yellow Wrasse
5x Turbo Snails
2x Emerald Crabs
4x yellow tail damsel
2x blue damsel
yellow goby
Algae Blenny
4x Hermit crabs

The algae Blenny, I bought in Aug 2019, only recently vanished in the last month or two. And I think that’s more to do with my lack of attention to the water quality than the bullying of the Clarkii.

I’m now left with the female Clarkii and one Blue damsel. I have very little coral, but did purchase (Feb 2020) a bubble tip anemone which the Clarkii absolutely loves. The anemone has also divided in two several months back and seems to be doing well.

So, plan of action.

I’ve read that I should just take the Clarkii back to the LFS and get some credit. But again, I really like the Clarkii and don’t really want to hand back.

Option 2. Put the Clarkii into the sump. My sump however is divided into 3 sections with very minimal space to move around. So pretty much a non starter option.

Option 3. I have a 15L nano tank. I wondered if rehousing the Clarkii here if I fill with existing tank water would be the best and easiest option. I know the tank is no where sufficient in size but my thinking being that I could house the Clarkii there for a couple of weeks to a month before putting back in the main tank. So long of course that I can stock the main tank with some residents that can will cope with the reintroduction.

The question then will be to decide what fish to stock the main tank with.

Any thoughts and feedback would be greatly appreciated.
 

gaki

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 23, 2019
Messages
164
Reaction score
114
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
If you are dead set on keeping the clarkii, then you're kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place. 15L is way too small for basically every saltwater fish, and clarkii can get to be four inches or more (if its female). I would try moving around the rockwork in the tank the clarkii is currently in which will hopefully tone down the dominance. If that doesn't work, then personally, I would either get a good sized tank (15-20 gallons) for the clarkii or start weighing the pros and cons of keeping it-is one fish really worth it? Hope this helps :)
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

  • Ball valves.

    Votes: 69 52.7%
  • Gate valves.

    Votes: 68 51.9%
  • Check valves.

    Votes: 34 26.0%
  • None.

    Votes: 29 22.1%
  • Other.

    Votes: 9 6.9%
Back
Top