My Clownfish is Twitching

[ficklefins]

It may be seeing its reflection in the corner glass and displaying a dominance behavior because of it.

 

[_Alex_]

Lol mine does it all the time. And before his mate died they did it to each other lol

 

[revhtree]

It may be seeing its reflection in the corner glass and displaying a dominance behavior because of it.

Bingo! I bet that is it!

 

[CoralQueen]

I posted this same thing on 3reef also and that was the same conclusion of the reflection theory. The fact that it has continued to do so for 2 years now makes me wonder if it wants another clownfish in the tank so i think i may introduce a half size ocellaris soon to be mated with. i predict some initial aggressive behavior but if it does not get bad they should be great and if it does i will just scrap the idea and take it back to the LFS.

 

[stunreefer]

Clowns are known for doing this as they're establishing dominance on other fish, attempting to mate with another clown (it's a mating dance, if you will), and I could potentially see them doing it to themselves in a reflection.

How long have you had the fish?

As Rob mentioned, this is also a tell-tale sign of a fluke infestataion. They "shake" their heads seemingly trying to shake the flukes right off. In this situation, I'm leaning towards the dominance thing...

 

[CoralQueen]

ive had it for 2 years now

 

[CoralQueen]

UPDATE: since my last post i have added a second clownfish and things went really well! The original clownfish no longer twitches and they have happily paired up although i must say they were not originally pleasant with one another, nipping and biting and such, but so far that all has settled down and they even host my palys together at night =) i guess their relationship is kind of the opposite of ours (nipping and biting and such usually increases over time haha)

 

[swimmingswammi]

I have two false perculas who do the same thing. It looks like a convulsion to me, much like when Neo on the Matrix was transitioning. But I have not noticed any other mating type behavior. They have been together in my tank for six months and were in another paired, before that. The twitching did not start until after a few months.