Sharkbait19
10K Club member
Hello everyone!
I’d like you all to meet Luxo, the most evil clownfish out there!
It started out with two tiny ocellaris clownfish, no larger than an inch. They quickly made a nice home in the quarantine tank, and even formed a close pair inside their small PVC pipe. Things seemed to be going great with them! Luxo would occasionally kick Nemo out then invite him back in, which was quite normal in pairing behavior from what I could tell.
Fast forward a few weeks, and they were the first two fish in my display tank (at least in a very long time)! They did typical clownfish stuff—hosted my torch coral to death, picked on the inverts, and so on. At this point, something became noticeably off about Luxo. She stuck very close to her torch (my second torch, that is…
), warded off Nemo, and made water changes a hassle, starting to follow my hand wherever it went.
Nemo (top) and a tiny Luxo (bottom) in their early days.
A few months later, enter Eve, the Aurora goby. At the introduction of this fish, something snapped inside Luxo, and she decided to harass Nemo to death. It was upsetting, but definitely something that happens from time to time in clown pairs. That was barely the bad part. I could not even attempt to clean the algae at this point. The little bugger would literally jump out of the water just to bite my hand! There were instances in which she’d even draw blood! A one-inch fish leaving marks!! It was here that I knew I had a mean-a** fish.
Over three months later I tested my fish luck again, and added a royal gramma. Luxo actually handled this quite well! The gramma, named Zurg, was able to hold its own and evade the clownfish. The two hung out often, with few signs of aggression. Of course, my hand was still the primary victim to the “devilfish”.
Well fast forward a little while longer, and I chose to round off the stocking with a firefish. Luxo seemed well behaved at this point, and only cared about its “anemone” (a ticked off torch). But things went swimmingly—for a bit. Luxo snapped, and one night I noticed her chasing around the poor firefish. The firefish was faster though. Then the firefish disappeared. At first I checked the sump, then the floor, then concluded that it was finished off. It sucked, but I suppose I’d have to stick with three happy fish. Or two…
After coming back from a weekend trip, I noticed the obvious absence of my royal gramma. Instead, there was a fat clownfish proudly swimming across its tank, surveying its whole territory. It no longer hosted the torch too much. The world was its torch coral! At the time, I didn’t really believe that the rapid deaths of my firefish and royal gramma were the clown’s fault. In fact, I assumed that once more, there was a disease outbreak. Thus, I netted an angry Luxo and stuck her into a quarantine tank. The goby was too difficult to catch, and at this point I was making plans to upgrade my tank.
Over a month later, nothing showed up on the goby, and I grew suspicious that Luxo was the actual disease within the tank…
These suspicions grew when I upgraded the tank, and was finally able to catch the goby and put her into the quarantine tank with Luxo. Not within two hours, I checked in on the fish and found Luxo angrily swimming around, with a completely shredded up goby. My initial reaction was “oh, God, she did it again,” and at this point knew that she murdered every other fish, all behind my back. But this time, I got her!! Fortunately, the goby was still alive, though definitely shaken up. I decided to skip quarantining the goby and gave her a nice home in the 40 breeder. Sadly, she now has a very screwed up tail with no signs of healing.
So, I believe I learned my lesson to never trust a clownfish. Or, at least this one. At the moment, I have no intention of moving Luxo into the larger tank, but I also can’t get rid of her. It’s weird—as evil as she is, she’s still my little clownfish friend! After all, she is my profile pic!! So for now, it’s fishy jail for Luxo! Bad clownfish, bad!!
I hope you enjoyed my little story, and I hope I taught a valuable lesson to anyone who thinks clownfish are fun, friendly, and cute. Spoiler alert, they ain’t…
I’d like you all to meet Luxo, the most evil clownfish out there!
It started out with two tiny ocellaris clownfish, no larger than an inch. They quickly made a nice home in the quarantine tank, and even formed a close pair inside their small PVC pipe. Things seemed to be going great with them! Luxo would occasionally kick Nemo out then invite him back in, which was quite normal in pairing behavior from what I could tell.
Fast forward a few weeks, and they were the first two fish in my display tank (at least in a very long time)! They did typical clownfish stuff—hosted my torch coral to death, picked on the inverts, and so on. At this point, something became noticeably off about Luxo. She stuck very close to her torch (my second torch, that is…
), warded off Nemo, and made water changes a hassle, starting to follow my hand wherever it went.Nemo (top) and a tiny Luxo (bottom) in their early days.
A few months later, enter Eve, the Aurora goby. At the introduction of this fish, something snapped inside Luxo, and she decided to harass Nemo to death. It was upsetting, but definitely something that happens from time to time in clown pairs. That was barely the bad part. I could not even attempt to clean the algae at this point. The little bugger would literally jump out of the water just to bite my hand! There were instances in which she’d even draw blood! A one-inch fish leaving marks!! It was here that I knew I had a mean-a** fish.
Over three months later I tested my fish luck again, and added a royal gramma. Luxo actually handled this quite well! The gramma, named Zurg, was able to hold its own and evade the clownfish. The two hung out often, with few signs of aggression. Of course, my hand was still the primary victim to the “devilfish”.
Well fast forward a little while longer, and I chose to round off the stocking with a firefish. Luxo seemed well behaved at this point, and only cared about its “anemone” (a ticked off torch). But things went swimmingly—for a bit. Luxo snapped, and one night I noticed her chasing around the poor firefish. The firefish was faster though. Then the firefish disappeared. At first I checked the sump, then the floor, then concluded that it was finished off. It sucked, but I suppose I’d have to stick with three happy fish. Or two…
After coming back from a weekend trip, I noticed the obvious absence of my royal gramma. Instead, there was a fat clownfish proudly swimming across its tank, surveying its whole territory. It no longer hosted the torch too much. The world was its torch coral! At the time, I didn’t really believe that the rapid deaths of my firefish and royal gramma were the clown’s fault. In fact, I assumed that once more, there was a disease outbreak. Thus, I netted an angry Luxo and stuck her into a quarantine tank. The goby was too difficult to catch, and at this point I was making plans to upgrade my tank.
Over a month later, nothing showed up on the goby, and I grew suspicious that Luxo was the actual disease within the tank…
These suspicions grew when I upgraded the tank, and was finally able to catch the goby and put her into the quarantine tank with Luxo. Not within two hours, I checked in on the fish and found Luxo angrily swimming around, with a completely shredded up goby. My initial reaction was “oh, God, she did it again,” and at this point knew that she murdered every other fish, all behind my back. But this time, I got her!! Fortunately, the goby was still alive, though definitely shaken up. I decided to skip quarantining the goby and gave her a nice home in the 40 breeder. Sadly, she now has a very screwed up tail with no signs of healing.
So, I believe I learned my lesson to never trust a clownfish. Or, at least this one. At the moment, I have no intention of moving Luxo into the larger tank, but I also can’t get rid of her. It’s weird—as evil as she is, she’s still my little clownfish friend! After all, she is my profile pic!! So for now, it’s fishy jail for Luxo! Bad clownfish, bad!!
I hope you enjoyed my little story, and I hope I taught a valuable lesson to anyone who thinks clownfish are fun, friendly, and cute. Spoiler alert, they ain’t…
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