B&W clowns finally found the anemone. Now the female is bullying my trigger! Advice..

[Ding2daDong]

B&W clowns finally found the anemone. Now the female is bullying my trigger! Advice..

Hello everyone,

I have had the same B&W pair of clownfish for over a year now. At the same time I have had a large RBTA that they just found a week or so ago. Today I noticed extreme aggression towards my blue jaw trigger from my female clownfish. She is about 1/7th the size of the trigger and is taking on way more then she can chew, literally.

My male clownfish seems to be the mediator and isn't aggressive at all. The female has shown no aggression until tonight and is actively pursuing and nipping at the trigger, which in turn tries to "nip" back but I'm afraid the trigger might take a chunk out of the clown/kill it.

So for tonight I turned off the lights to disperse everything until I can figure out what is going on. I hope I don't wakeup to a dead clownfish..

Anyone know what's happening?

Thanks for your time,

-Matthew

 

[Ding2daDong]

I would also like to add that before today my clownfish have been extremely calm and never showed any signs of aggression. Now the female only shows extreme aggression towards the blue jaw trigger and no one else. I have many other tangs and anthias but currently the trigger is the largest fish in my tank. Also the female clownfish is the only one currently in the anemone. The male hangs on the outskirts still getting used to it.

Also she seems very jittery like on edge and can't seem to stay in one place for to long.

Thanks

-Matthew

 

[Conrad25]

Female is probably getting ready to breed than. They usually get really agressive when breeding and is probably going near the trigger when it gets near the rbta correct? They should work it out and I don't think it will kill the clown pending on how large of a trigger

 

[doctooth]

sounds like she is setting up her territory and geting ready to lay eggs...good luck

 

[Ding2daDong]

Female is probably getting ready to breed than. They usually get really agressive when breeding and is probably going near the trigger when it gets near the rbta correct? They should work it out and I don't think it will kill the clown pending on how large of a trigger

Thanks for your reply. Currently the female clownfish actively pursues the trigger whenever he goes outside the rock work. It is very tense watching the heated, fins up, swimming in circles every so often. The trigger is really calm but the clownfish just thinks she is superwoman or something. I know the trigger has teeth so I just don't want a dead clownfish or a tank with a trigger that is afraid to leave the LR. I like a happy, peaceful tank.

Thanks again,

-Matthew

 

[Lifes A Beach]

My guess is that she is getting ready to breed. I had a pair that I raised for 4 years when the female suddenly became very agressive and killed all the fish in my tank. Several weeks later she started laying eggs. I was never able to reintroduce any fish into that tank. That pair had a 75 gal. tank all to themselves!

--Barbara

 

[ezhoops]

I've had an ocellaris kill a flagfin angel and others. they can get nasty mean when they are going to breed which she is most likely doing.