Clownfish aggression

[pennfisherman]

Hi everyone, I am having issues with my clownfish. I have had a pair in my 14 biocube for about 2-3 years now. I have recently been spending more time on my tank. (Giving it the attention it needs, I was neglecting it) well about 2 weeks ago my 2 clowns started doing the normal clown fish dance to show submission to the other. It wasn't really that bad, maybe a little bit of fin nipping and biting.

Well I just came home from a 2 day ski trip, my brother had been feeding my tank, and my one clown fish is beat to crap. Is very pale in color and his fins are destroyed. Half if not more of each fin is gone. The more dominant clown is constantly chasing the other around the tank biting at it. I have a lot of live rock and a lot of hiding places but it doesn't seem to be helping as the dominant clown just follows the other into any hole.

Does anyone have any advice for me? I have had the one clown for 4-5 years now and id hate for him to be killed. I don't have a separate tank I can set up and I don't have a sump considering it's a biocube.

At this point I would even consider giving one of my clown fish to someone. I don't want the one to be killed...

Thank you
Matt

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

Looks like 1 will have to go, put a divider(egg crate) separating them till it heals.

 

[pennfisherman]

Anyone want a clownfish? I will be keeping the beaten up one as I have had him over 4 years.

 

[Usernam Invalid]

+1 on the egg crate if you can keep them separated for a bit to let the one heal.

I'm sure I can find room in one of my tanks if you want me to nurse him back to health for you

 

[pennfisherman]

Thanks jay, I was able to separate them last night. I had a breeder net I use to use for my freshwater tank. So he's in there now, I am going to give him some time to heal and eat up before I attempt to put them back together. If things don't workout I'll shoot you a PM.

All the coral looks great. Thanks again

-Matt

 

[DeepSeaBeauti]

Sorry to hear about that. I see some aggression with all 14 of my clowns but my tank is so big they always find places to hide. I have found though that the wild caught pair I have are far more aggressive then the tank raised that came from those two.
Good luck with them, maybe after it heals they may sort out dominance and actually pair up. Clowns are funny like that.

 

[anothermineral]

I've been breeding clowns for the last 5 years. The aggression situation you describe is not uncommon. It's been my experience that when pairs start to go through their "dominance phase" that it tends to be a binary outcome. Either the two figure it out and the dominant fish becomes the female, or they don't and the dominant fish ends up killing / harassing the weaker fish until it dies.

I would not recommend putting these two fish back together based on what you've described.

 

[GROSSR]

So anothermineral, you think the male changed to a female with a female in the tank already?

thanks

rich

 

[anothermineral]

Rich,

I'm not sure about a male to female switch, only that in my experience, when aggression starts, it typically ends in either love or death.

I would think if they've been together for 3 years that they've already gone through the dominance ritual, but you never know, they could still have both been male and just started.