bullying question

[vwwanksta69]

I posted a couple days ago that my one black and white ocellaris clown harassed my regular ocellaris to its death...Today I went back to the LFS and bought the same kind clown, so now I have two black and white ocellaris...they are the same size and had lived peacefully in the display tank with two others as well, I acclimated for over an hour and then added the new one, he went over to the the bully and started to swim with him, for about 3 hours there was some aggression but nothing overwhelming to the new guy. About 5 hours into introducing the new one I found him half way out of the water with the bully darting at him to get fully out of water. He was heavily breathing and not moving so I scooped him into my net and he laid in it for about 10 mins without moving. About a half hour later went back to check to see if he passed away and he was up and swimming in the net, the bully was swimming as fast as he could around the tank while the new one was recovering in the net. The new one managed to escape the net and right away the bully started harassing him causing him to breathe heavily and not move again, this time I have the bully in the net.....

-My question is that since the new one would most likely die if left to defend himself, is it alright to leave the bully one in my net over night?

-Can I give it another try letting them swim together when the lights are on? Or is this angry never going to stop and I should trade him?

Thanks a lot!

 

[inachu]

From all the reading I have done seems like your origiannl migh tbe a female and the one you introduced was a female also.

Being an adult female is the last stage of development and they will not change back to male.

Any new fish of clown species MUST be very young so they can change how ever the tank is set with the other clown fish.

I think you may have to send back the older female to the store and trade it in for a baby or a juvenile so they can get along.

2 adult females will never get along.

 

[vwwanksta69]

I am not sure I will have to double check but my bully still has a bright orange face and light shade of orange throughout its body, the new one has a blacker face with no orange throughout its body...I will give it a try again today to see if the bully will stop attacking the new one...Ill post back up later today if they have calmed down...

 

[Arati]

all clowns are basically born male
if ya have 2 fish the dominant or bully fish will become the female and grow larger then the male. once this happens it does not change back.

If during the sorting out of who gets to become the female, some problem arises and either fish is removed the remainign fish will become female.

Now when you goto add a new fish you have to add a smaller fish as small as you can get. you are looking for one that has not had the chance to become female yet.

If you add a larger one you now have 2 females and they will fight.

That is my undertsanding, as basic as it may be.

 

[vwwanksta69]

ok sounds good, thanks for the feedback... found out that they both are 5 months old, seems like the new one is taking on the male role, hopefully he can deal with the bullying and stress for now...keeping my fingers crossed