Clownfish still aggressively fighting after 6 months!

[EthanHawaii]

Hi, When I bought my 55 gallon aquarium one of the fish it came with was a clownfish. The person I bought the tank from said the other clown jumped out of the tank and died. A few months later, I bought a small clown (about 1'' smaller than the other clown). When I introduced it to the tank my original clown (by this time would be a female) attacked it a bit and then they seemed to be fine for the first couple of months.

Now it has been 6 months and i'm getting REALLY fed up with them fighting all the time. The smaller clown almost never seems to fight the female but the female loves to fight and cause a lot of fin damage to the small clown. I really can't blame her for fighting with it so harshly because the small clown has yet to this day to show the submissive side shaking behaviour that it is supposed to show. The really weird thing is that my female clown will charge the male and then start shaking and showing she is submissive? why is she showing submissive behaviour to the small clown? I think the small clown is the male because they never lock jaws as two females would.

should I give up on this pair (before the female causes the male to get ich and crash my tank!) and try to get a mated pair of clowns?

Thanks,
Ethan

 

[Rudimenta]

What clowns are they, 1" is too young to be male or female


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[Dkuhlmann]

What clowns are they, 1" is too young to be male or female


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The OP said 1" smaller than the current fish, not a 1" clown.

What species of clown do you have?

 

[EthanHawaii]

Yes that's right, it was 1'' smaller than my larger clown (if not smaller) when I bought it, right know it is 1 3/4" and the female is 2 1/2''. The female clown is part black onyx (if not completely black onyx) so it would be mostly a true percula, and the smaller clown is an ocellaris (sorry I didn't mention this before).


Thanks,
Ethan

 

[cody3819]

Yes that's right, it was 1'' smaller than my larger clown (if not smaller) when I bought it, right know it is 1 3/4" and the female is 2 1/2''. The female clown is part black onyx (if not completely black onyx) so it would be mostly a true percula, and the smaller clown is an ocellaris (sorry I didn't mention this before).


Thanks,
Ethan

Its more than likely two female Clowns....

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[EthanHawaii]

Its more than likely two female Clowns....

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Here is a video of them fighting.

They will constantly be fighting like this (sometimes more aggressively) throughout the day, and then they will be fine for a little while, but as you can see the female has cased a LOT of fin damage to the little clown.

Ignore the hair algae as I have not yet gotten around cleaning it off yet.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zma6M1VOp1E

 

[cody3819]

Does one of them ever do a submission dance?

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[EthanHawaii]

Does one of them ever do a submission dance?

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Yes the big female.

 

[EthanHawaii]

Yes that's right, it was 1'' smaller than my larger clown (if not smaller) when I bought it, right know it is 1 3/4" and the female is 2 1/2''. The female clown is part black onyx (if not completely black onyx) so it would be mostly a true percula, and the smaller clown is an ocellaris (sorry I didn't mention this before).


Thanks,
Ethan

I got it wrong, the little one is not a ocellaris it is a true percula sorry.

 

[cody3819]

Sometimes two different types of clowns will not get along?

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[cody3819]

I'm not the biggest clown fish expert.....

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[Mo2]

I would try rearranging items in the tank. Then maybe taking the female out, rearranging with the male in it, and introduce female afterwards. However, just fyi, clowns don't always get along even if they are different sizes.

 

[cody3819]

+1 Mo2

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[EthanHawaii]

Ok, good to know.

 

[mfaso24]

I had a pair and my male disappeared one day a few months ago. My female is about 2-2.5 inches and I just added a little baby clown, probably half an inch. As soon as I added him, I thought "crap he's way smaller than I thought" but surprisingly my female submitted to him IMMEDIATELY. I've never witnessed any aggression with any of the clowns I've had. Except for when my female started hosting in a goniopora. Wouldn't let the original make come in. Was also aggressive with my hand when cleaning near the Goni.


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[EthanHawaii]

I had a pair and my male disappeared one day a few months ago. My female is about 2-2.5 inches and I just added a little baby clown, probably half an inch. As soon as I added him, I thought "crap he's way smaller than I thought" but surprisingly my female submitted to him IMMEDIATELY. I've never witnessed any aggression with any of the clowns I've had. Except for when my female started hosting in a goniopora. Wouldn't let the original make come in. Was also aggressive with my hand when cleaning near the Goni.


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Wow! I wish my female did that. My LFS had one of their paired male display clowns stolen by an employee (who is obviously fired!) a month ago, so they put a tiny baby clown in the tank with the female and she excepted him immediately just like yours!

I found a breeding pair of clowns on a kijiji like site here but he wants to sell the tank and everything together, I thought this would be the one (I feel like my reef central avatar)