Clown Fish pair fighting

[nynikki]

I woke yesterday to find that my clowns were sleeping on opposite sides of the tank, which I thought was unusual. I wasn't home much at all yesterday so I wasn't able to observe their behavior, but today they are literally fighting with each other and will not leave each other alone. I bought these two as a mature pair and have had them for over two years and they have been the best of friends, always swimming together and sleeping and protecting the same corner of the tank. I recently (a few months ago) added an RBT for them that only in the past couple of weeks they began taking an interest in. I still haven't seen them enter the anemone, but I have seen them pecking at the foot, and bumping the underside of it.

Can anyone speculate on what's going on. Did I have a pair and now have two females? Will they fight to the death? Is this just a normal mating behavior? Do I need to separate them? Or let them just work things out for now? This is the last thing I would have expected to be an issue with my tank! They have been together so long and have always been so happy together. I'm really not looking to breed, I just wanted to be able to enjoy a peaceful pair and if they laid eggs, well then something else to be able to enjoy.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[ponokareefer]

What kind of clownfish are they?

 

[nynikki]

What kind of clownfish are they?

Ocellaris

 

[nynikki]

Well thanks everyone for the insightful information, I can't tell you how much this has helped.

When I got home last night, my male looks like he got his butt kicked severely. The pair hung out together for a bit, but are again sleeping in separate corners of the tank.

Does anyone out there have experience with this type of situation and perhaps can provide a little insight? It's not like I'm trying to newly pair them, I have personally had this pair for over 2 years and have never seen them fight. I've seen them kill other fish, but never hurt each other.

 

[brian762]

Is the male doing the submisive twitch when the female attacks?

 

[miketay89]

I have quite a few clownfish, but I have never had this happen. As I am guessing everyone else so far who has read this thread has not had this happen either.
I have had the female bicker a little with the male, but certainly nothing serious like you are describing.
The way you describe it, it does sound like 2 females fighting it out, but I have never seen a male turn female while living with a female.
So I am little help, except to say that it sounds like 2 females fighting. IMO, I would not pull them apart though unless you are absolutely sure that you have to inorder to save the males life. Because once you take them apart you have lost your pair for sure.

 

[nynikki]

Is the male doing the submisive twitch when the female attacks?

Yes, tonight he seems to be doing that a lot. Yesterday was pretty scary to watch. They seemed to be swimming together more today, but still seem a bit nippy with each other.

 

[nynikki]

I have quite a few clownfish, but I have never had this happen. As I am guessing everyone else so far who has read this thread has not had this happen either.
I have had the female bicker a little with the male, but certainly nothing serious like you are describing.
The way you describe it, it does sound like 2 females fighting it out, but I have never seen a male turn female while living with a female.
So I am little help, except to say that it sounds like 2 females fighting. IMO, I would not pull them apart though unless you are absolutely sure that you have to inorder to save the males life. Because once you take them apart you have lost your pair for sure.

Thank you for the speculation, it's definitely strange and unexpected behavior. A friend suggested that maybe the male was looking to change over to female, and this little butt kicking may have kept him as a submissive male. I'll be keeping a close eye on them this weekend and keep everyone posted.

 

[BonsaiNut]

Have they ever spawned? If not, how do you know they are a pair? I read that you bought them as a mature pair, but was that from the LFS? Sadly, I see many clowns sold as "pairs" in stores when what they really mean is "these two clowns are currently not killing one another" not "these are a proven spawning pair".

 

[Aaarrrggg]

Maybe buy a hang on the side breeders net to seperate them when things look like they're getting a little too much for the male.

You could also try rearranging things to quell the aggression. Turning the lights out is also supposed to help (if it's looking like he might be in trouble.).

It could be the nem causing the aggression -my old B&W fem turned into a right b*tch when she started hosting.

I have also heard of females getting particularly aggressive before spawning... Fingers crossed that's what's going on!

Good luck! Hope he makes it!

 

[SoLiD]

Well, I'm no expert, but this is what I found out by accident. I have a pair of Snowflake Clowns that were nice to each other for about 6 months. Then the Female (Bigger) started nipping, getting territorial, and chasing the Male around. The Male twitched to show submissiveness, but still got beat up. Well, I put them in a breeder net to make changes in the rock work to change up the territories. The weird thing is that they became nice to each other in the breeder net. I observed them to be kind of afraid of my scraper and watched them as they huddled together for security. So I left them in the breeder net for a while and would routinely scare them to watch them huddle up for safety with each other. I left them in there for a while... like around three to four weeks. I fed them in there and did my water changes with them in there; and guess what; they bonded to each other and to the breeder net strangely enough. It fixed the quarreling and now if I want to catch them for what ever reason, I just put the breeder net in there and come morning they will both be inside.

I know that it sounds crazy, but It's true.... ;-)

 

[miketay89]

That is good stuff solid, that would be worth a try.

 

[nynikki]

Well, I'm no expert, but this is what I found out by accident. I have a pair of Snowflake Clowns that were nice to each other for about 6 months. Then the Female (Bigger) started nipping, getting territorial, and chasing the Male around. The Male twitched to show submissiveness, but still got beat up. Well, I put them in a breeder net to make changes in the rock work to change up the territories. The weird thing is that they became nice to each other in the breeder net. I observed them to be kind of afraid of my scraper and watched them as they huddled together for security. So I left them in the breeder net for a while and would routinely scare them to watch them huddle up for safety with each other. I left them in there for a while... like around three to four weeks. I fed them in there and did my water changes with them in there; and guess what; they bonded to each other and to the breeder net strangely enough. It fixed the quarreling and now if I want to catch them for what ever reason, I just put the breeder net in there and come morning they will both be inside.

I know that it sounds crazy, but It's true.... ;-)

That's an amazing experience. Thank you for sharing. I'll keep an eye on them today and see how they are doing. The bickering seems to have subsided some which I'm grateful for. But if they continue to go at it, I'll see if this works for me too.

 

[nynikki]

Maybe buy a hang on the side breeders net to seperate them when things look like they're getting a little too much for the male.

You could also try rearranging things to quell the aggression. Turning the lights out is also supposed to help (if it's looking like he might be in trouble.).

It could be the nem causing the aggression -my old B&W fem turned into a right b*tch when she started hosting.

I have also heard of females getting particularly aggressive before spawning... Fingers crossed that's what's going on!

Good luck! Hope he makes it!

Lately I have added a few new coral, but haven't been moving rocks... I probably have too much rock by some standards so there isn't many ways I can move things around. The funny thing about them fighting was that I witnessed it during the early morning while the tank lights were still off. Of course the sun was coming up and that did provide some ambient light. I do hope they will end up breeding and this was just an early sign of that, how awesome would that be? :celeb1:

 

[nynikki]

Have they ever spawned? If not, how do you know they are a pair? I read that you bought them as a mature pair, but was that from the LFS? Sadly, I see many clowns sold as "pairs" in stores when what they really mean is "these two clowns are currently not killing one another" not "these are a proven spawning pair".

I have no idea if they have ever spawned prior to me owning them, but in the two years I've had them, no, they have not. I called them a mature pair, as they certainly were not juveniles when I got them. Based on their size and how little they have grown since , I would have to guess that they were at least a couple of years old already. I really wasn't looking to buy a breeding pair, just two fish who weren't killing each other was fine by me. If I had observed this behavior shortly after getting them, I would be thinking that they had not yet established which one was male and which was female. Witnessing this behavior though after so long is what was surprising to me, and I really didn't want to witness one being beaten to death after caring for them for so long now.