Aggressive clown

[Jaypilot]

About three weeks ago I moved my B&W pair of clowns to a breeding tank because I didn't want them to lay eggs in my display tank. Today I noticed the male was hiding under the pot breathing really heavy. So the first thing that came to mind was water quality. After checking the water I was at a loss because everything checked out perfect and he was the only one acting funny. A few hours later I went back to the tank and it was like WW3. My female clown was chasing the male and as soon as the male could get back to his hidding place he did.

So my question is, what would cause a female to all the sudden get aggressive to her mate like that. The only thing that I can think of is that they are now in a divided tank with other clowns that are now breeding.

Im a little worried because these are my favorite pair and I don't want to lose the male.

 

[mikelee35]

About three weeks ago I moved my B&W pair of clowns to a breeding tank because I didn't want them to lay eggs in my display tank. Today I noticed the male was hiding under the pot breathing really heavy. So the first thing that came to mind was water quality. After checking the water I was at a loss because everything checked out perfect and he was the only one acting funny. A few hours later I went back to the tank and it was like WW3. My female clown was chasing the male and as soon as the male could get back to his hidding place he did.

So my question is, what would cause a female to all the sudden get aggressive to her mate like that. The only thing that I can think of is that they are now in a divided tank with other clowns that are now breeding.

Im a little worried because these are my favorite pair and I don't want to lose the male.

If you have them in a divided tank you need to black out the divider, also once moved the female might feel the need to be "dominant" again and it usually passes, my fire clowns did the same thing for about a week

Mike

 

[dcime123]

I had the same problems. I believe water parameters and lighting schedules can cause undo stress to our fish. The female clowns can get overly aggressive, but, they can also be very nurturing. Sometimes my male stays away like he knows she needs to cool down a bit! Funny thing, no matter what mood she is in, they sleep together side by side EVERY night in front right of tank where she brushed some sand away. During the day they "relax" in the mushroom patch...

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

B & W = black and white?

if so, what species?

 

[Jaypilot]

Thanks for the replies. They are Black & White Ocellaris, Other then that if there are different breeds I wasn't aware of that and if so I'm not sure which type mine are. I can tell you that they are ALL black with no orange anywhere on the fish.

As far as the dividers they are all blacked out so that they can't see each other. Although one thing that I did notice between a pair of Ocellaris and true percs they would try to attack each other through the little vent slots cut on both the top and bottom of the blacked out dividers, this gets worse when their bellies are full of eggs.

The good news is that the aggression has stopped between my B&W Ocellaris pair. Unfortunately the male is a little beat up with some shredded fins. This aggression lasted for about 24 hours, If it was still going on the next day I was going to move the female out for some time out but fortunately I didn't have to do this. They are now pretty much joined at the hip and will not leave each others side.

As stated before they were in the new tank for about a week before I noticed the aggression and it may be possible that the female was just letting the little male know who the boss was.

 

[dcime123]

Glad To Hear It

Glad To Hear It

Clowns really are...funny :celeb3:
The female seems to always win!