Clownfish Battle

[Clowny88]

My clowns have been together for about a year, my female established dominance early. The little guy (juvenile) submitted and all has been fine since. Female would flex now and then but otherwise they are inseparable.

Now I noticed both of their lips are white and upon some sneaky viewing... She is just beating the tar out of him. But after she goes in for an attack, she then flops like SHE is submitting to HIM. And she will dart from one end of the tank to the other to take a shot at him. It's nonstop anymore. He is considerably smaller but looks like once in a great while he does fight back, but he is mostly submissive.

Any ideas why they'd be going through Round 2 and so brutally after it seemed like they've established themselves for so long?

 

[Ron448]

The same thing just happened to a pair of black snowflakes I have. They've been together for at least 6 months a little aggression in the beginning then it stopped for the most part then about three weeks ago the big one just started beating up the little one pretty bad. It would bite his fins and hold onto them for a few seconds even the tail. Just about all the fins on the smaller one were ripped up at one point and then the big one slowly started to ease up. My smaller ones fins are pretty much healed up now but I still see the big one pick on the other one occasionally. I submitted a thread about it like last week and one guy told me that sometimes the female just won't accept certain other potential mates even if they're not both females. I'd keep an eye on them and be prepared to separate them if it gets really bad. But as to why this would happen so long after being together I didn't get any responses for. Pretty much the only reason I can think of for this to happen would be that they weren't sexually mature until now so this is really when they are establishing the dominant of the two. Hopefully someone who knows more about it can chime in and tell if it's normal for this to happen after such a long time of them being together

 

[OrionN]

Immature fish can get along well with each other. When one reach maturation, she start to exert dominant. This is what you see. Are they the same fish in your avatar? Are they the same species or one Ocellaris and the other a Percula or mixed? Cross species pairing tend to be harder for the little guy.

 

[Clowny88]

Thanks for the responses. Yes, same ones as my avatar. Both same species.

 

[Clowny88]

These guys still going hard. Contemplating splitting them up. Thoughts?