Beat Up Tomato

[stevetcg]

I have a 20L which I have dedicated to my tomato clown and his eventual BTA buddy. While out shopping the other day I found another smaller tomato on sale so I thought I would try to mate them up.

Its been 3 days. The fighting has mostly subsided but the smaller (presumably male) is pretty nicked up. His fins are pretty ragged and wont go near the female if she is feeding.

Should I separate them for a time? Remove the male and put him in my peaceful DT? Get some so be? Advice would be appreciated!

 

[WDLV]

I have a 20L which I have dedicated to my tomato clown and his eventual BTA buddy. While out shopping the other day I found another smaller tomato on sale so I thought I would try to mate them up.

Its been 3 days. The fighting has mostly subsided but the smaller (presumably male) is pretty nicked up. His fins are pretty ragged and wont go near the female if she is feeding.

Should I separate them for a time? Remove the male and put him in my peaceful DT? Get some so be? Advice would be appreciated!

One thing you can do to curb aggression is to turn the lights off. You can also add hiding places that the smaller one can access but the female can't (I did this with my barberi clowns.)

When I paired my thielleis, I put the newcomer in a tank butted right up against the tank of the one I had. They were like that for a month until the second one finished quarrantine. When I put them together they were like old pals. I could not afford to risk contamination of the existing fish or battery of the newcomer. This was my solution and it worked in this one instance. This may or may not work for tomato, clarkii and marroon complexes.

I have also had success in moving both fish to a new tank to disorient them. I did this when my latezonatus female thrashed her mate. Once moved, she stopped and he healed.

Good luck to ya.