When I started my tank around 6 months ago, the first real color I put in the tank after testing was deemed "OK" to introduce fish was installed a harem of blizzard clowns. I went with the suggested 12 each, juveniles, probably an inch in size or so and introduced them to the 500-gallon tank. For the last 6 months life was going relatively smooth. The group would brood together, swim together and pretty much stay in the tight ball when swimming around the tank.
That all changed over the weekend.
I came to the office and noticed I was missing a few clowns. Nothing new actually. I have often had the little ones slip into the overflows and travel down to the sump and/or I have them retrieved from the overflows and put them back in with the brood. No big deal. Well, this morning after some looking around it was clear I was missing a handful of clowns, and few were on their last legs. Fins tattered, nonexistent and bit marks a plenty.
I also noticed our CUC was having a field day cleaning up the mess. Snails, crabs & hermits having a feed on multiple fish until I could get them out. That was also a giveaway as to how many ended up deceased over the weekend.
I decided to feed and observe.
Sure enough, when it was time to eat, two of the clowns, chased, nipped and pushed the other clowns out of the feeding space. Persistently and with force. This left me with no doubt the two biggest and healthiest clowns decided to assert some dominance and thin the herd per se.
I witnessed a similar behavior with our Blue Chromis. We started with 8 and they whittled themselves down to 4 healthy fish. No surprise, the biggest ones survived.
I made the choice to remove the remaining clowns and put them in a 30gallon qt tank until I sort out what's next. Rehome them or just keep the biggest two and save me hours of trying to catch little fish in a large tank. So far, the same two are healthy and strong. The rest in the tank are tattered and look to have been through a war zone over the last 72 hours.
The reason for the background information is to ask the group if this is "normal"? Not knowing much about clowns when I started, I took the advice of a trusted fish friend and went with a Harem. This was supposed to alleviate the possibility of the clowns killing one another to sort out the female in the group. I have a feeling; however, nature is unpredictable, and this is a situation not unique to myself or other professional clown keepers.
Am I wrong? Is this to be expected or a calculated risk at the very least? Have you had a similar story? Rehome the remaining and keep the two strongest?
Let me know what you think. I'm all eyes.
That all changed over the weekend.
I came to the office and noticed I was missing a few clowns. Nothing new actually. I have often had the little ones slip into the overflows and travel down to the sump and/or I have them retrieved from the overflows and put them back in with the brood. No big deal. Well, this morning after some looking around it was clear I was missing a handful of clowns, and few were on their last legs. Fins tattered, nonexistent and bit marks a plenty.
I also noticed our CUC was having a field day cleaning up the mess. Snails, crabs & hermits having a feed on multiple fish until I could get them out. That was also a giveaway as to how many ended up deceased over the weekend.
I decided to feed and observe.
Sure enough, when it was time to eat, two of the clowns, chased, nipped and pushed the other clowns out of the feeding space. Persistently and with force. This left me with no doubt the two biggest and healthiest clowns decided to assert some dominance and thin the herd per se.
I witnessed a similar behavior with our Blue Chromis. We started with 8 and they whittled themselves down to 4 healthy fish. No surprise, the biggest ones survived.
I made the choice to remove the remaining clowns and put them in a 30gallon qt tank until I sort out what's next. Rehome them or just keep the biggest two and save me hours of trying to catch little fish in a large tank. So far, the same two are healthy and strong. The rest in the tank are tattered and look to have been through a war zone over the last 72 hours.
The reason for the background information is to ask the group if this is "normal"? Not knowing much about clowns when I started, I took the advice of a trusted fish friend and went with a Harem. This was supposed to alleviate the possibility of the clowns killing one another to sort out the female in the group. I have a feeling; however, nature is unpredictable, and this is a situation not unique to myself or other professional clown keepers.
Am I wrong? Is this to be expected or a calculated risk at the very least? Have you had a similar story? Rehome the remaining and keep the two strongest?
Let me know what you think. I'm all eyes.