agressive ocelaris

[jasonh]

Hi all

Just before Thanksgiving I purchased 2 ocelaris clowns. They came from the same tank (with quite a few other clowns), and are both the same size. After a couple weeks it became clear that one was seriously harassing the other, to the point of it constantly jumping into the overflow for safety. It got so bad that the one being harassed would hardly move and would just float near the top of the tank in a corner..it's fins were a bit torn up. So I put it in the overflow and let it hang out in there for a couple weeks to heal up. Seemed to be ok, so today I put it back in the main tank. Within 15 min, it was back to being harassed. Now it's back up in the corner again

Is this something I should just wait out and see if they decide who's male and who's female? Or should I think about rehoming one of them, most likely the aggressive one?

What's interesting is that the aggressive one turns on its side and does the jerky "seizure" movements, which I thought was supposed to be a submissive behavior. Weird.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

P.S. Other inhabitants are: bicolor blenny, yellowstreaked fairy wrasse, adult red coris wrasse. There is a nice hunk of frogspawn in the tank. At first it looked like they were going to host it, but then the harassing started.

 

[hybridgenius]

Most likely its already determined sex because the female ALWAYS beats down the male. If you want... wait it out because its fairly common, BUT since you said they are about the same size... they could possibly two females. Just watch them. Best way of pairing is get a really small one matched with an obviously bigger one.

 

[jasonh]

Well it's been getting beat up pretty badly again, so it's back to the overflow. I think I am going to give away one of them and see if I can get a small one to hopefully pair it up with.