My female clown of over a year turned crazy aggressive

Gatling · Nov 26, 2019

Hi guys, I have a small tank (13.5g) with 2 clowns and a pink damsel. They all got along incredibly well for over a year. Literally just today my female clown (the much bigger clown) is chasing my damsel like crazy. Lots of biting attempts too.

What kind of behavior sparked this? The female clown is slightly bigger than the damsel but somewhat similar sizes. Are they just fighting over dominance or are the clowns trying to mate and th female is being hyper aggressive??

Peace River · Nov 26, 2019

Gatling said:
Hi guys, I have a small tank (13.5g) with 2 clowns and a pink damsel. They all got along incredibly well for over a year. Literally just today my female clown (the much bigger clown) is chasing my damsel like crazy. Lots of biting attempts too.

What kind of behavior sparked this? The female clown is slightly bigger than the damsel but somewhat similar sizes. Are they just fighting over dominance or are the clowns trying to mate and th female is being hyper aggressive??

Most likely you described the cause in the last part of your final sentence. Clowns are wired for dominance so unfortunately this isn't unusual. It is part of the mystery, magic, and frustrations of keeping clownfish.

Gatling · Nov 26, 2019

Peace River said:
Most likely you described the cause in the last part of your final sentence. Clowns are wired for dominance so unfortunately this isn't unusual. It is part of the mystery, magic, and frustrations of keeping clownfish.

What's crazy I thought the damsel would cause trouble in this tank but the damsel is really shook now. He is swimming in the corner away from the clowns (he has a massive home under one of my rocks too so he can definitely hide).

If the clowns want to breed, I have no idea on what signs to look out for. Are there any classic signs that I should be looking out for?

Peace River · Nov 26, 2019

Gatling said:
What's crazy I thought the damsel would cause trouble in this tank but the damsel is really shook now. He is swimming in the corner away from the clowns (he has a massive home under one of my rocks too so he can definitely hide).

If the clowns want to breed, I have no idea on what signs to look out for. Are there any classic signs that I should be looking out for?

One obvious one is the side-shimy full body shake.