Black Saddlebacks Turning Aggressive

[lhartz01]

Hi everyone, I'm still fairly new to this so am trying to learn... Sorry if this is a common occurence.

I have a 90-gal that is just over 1 year old. I have two Black Saddleback Clowns that I picked up probably 10 months ago, they were young. Since then they've lived in harmony with their few tankmates: 1 sixline; 1 algae blenny; 1 yellow tang; 3 green chromis and 2 carberryi anthias. (They went in first with the sixline, others were added later but everyone has been in there for about 4 months now). The clowns have been fairly timid actually.

On Tuesday, I added a RBTA (first nem), not at all expecting that the BSCs would take to it (none of the info I've seen list them as a 'natural' pair). But, they did, within an hour.

Since then they have both (one more than the other) become very aggressive to the other fish (except for the tang, they leave it alone). Not just 'defending' the RBTA but dominating the entire tank. Would adding the RBTA cause them to become more territorial? Or are they just growing up?

Any thoughts are apprecieated!

Thanks.

 

[Toddrtrex]

They now have a "home" to defend, and it is just going to get worse. If you think they are bad now, wait until they start to spawn. Saddlebacks are up there with maroons and Clarkii for aggressiveness.

 

[InsaneClownFish]

Like Todd said, since they have a home to defend they can be more aggressive; and to add to that, since they are more "comfortable" they may start to spawn. I'm guessing they just reached sexual maturity around the same time you added the nem.

I have a black Saddleback in my 8 foot reef with a mated pair of Oceallaris. The Saddles are quite timid at first, and the large fem Occ would easily chase the Saddle away. Now that the Saddle has been there awhile, she's become more bold- but not aggressive- and the female Occ is more tolerant(they are not typically an aggressive clown anyway). I actually caught her doing "the dance" with the Occs the other night- oh so strange and funny.

 

[BonsaiNut]

I agree with everything said here. The bad news is the aggressiveness. The good news is that they normally only get really aggressive when they settle into a host and start thinking about spawning. The REALLY good news is that they formed a pair and are not going after each other instead.

In a 90 gallon tank there is normally enough room for other tank mates to escape/hide, assuming you have a fair amount of rockwork.

 

[hypnoj]

Lesson learned to all prospective clownfish buyers. Do your homework before buying clowns or anemone's.