Clownfishes fighting under LED light?

[PupChow]

I have a pair of ~1 year old MochaVinci (Ocellaris) clowns, they seems to get along well for the most part when the light is not on, but when the LED light comes on (Radion G3) the female becomes very aggressive and would charges at the male and pin him to a corner. I chalk it up to display of domiance but it is becoming more apparent that the female becomes extra aggressive when the main light is on. Is there any association with LED light and clownfish aggression? I have this pair for around 5 months.

 

[ThRoewer]

The light may change how the male looks and the female doesn't recognize him.
Do you switch your light on and off or do you ramp it slowly?

 

[hotelbravo]

also did you just switch to a different led light. as ThRoewer said they recognize each other through patterns and changing the lighting may make the male appear to be an impostor.

 

[CLR]

Is there a safe way to switch the lights and the let clowns adjust?

 

[ThRoewer]

I never had any problems with my wild clowns - it may be that constant inbreeding has diminished the mental capacities of captive bred and especially designer clowns.

I ramp up slowly so the fish don't get shocked when the light suddenly goes on or off. In the times before dimmable LEDs that was for me the cause of most cases of fish jumping out.

 

[PupChow]

The light may change how the male looks and the female doesn't recognize him.
Do you switch your light on and off or do you ramp it slowly?

Interesting..! I have the light schedule set to similar to a traditional reef tank (1 hr blue, 8 hrs full, 1 hr blue, 1 hr moon-light). I remember the Radion has a map called "Radiant" where it's a gradual ramp up/down. I can certainly try that and see if the female clown behaves differently.

Most of my male's body is white, I can see how the whole fish's appareance could change based on the light's color.

 

[ThRoewer]

...
Most of my male's body is white, I can see how the whole fish's appareance could change based on the light's color.

There is a reason why there are no extreme Picasso or snowflake clowns in the ocean - too much white only gives disadvantages in the wild.

Also, most clownfish recognize each other by the shape of the head band. If it is missing or appears differently under different light, the female might not recognize the male and attack him.

 

[PupChow]

Got it, that is really interesting -- thank you!

If it is the white color on a clown's head that is reflecting the different color light causing the confusion, would it make sense that I should try with a lower kelvin color temp, so the color more resembles room light instead of actinic blue? Or is it more complicated than just the light color?

 

[ThRoewer]

I think slow ramp-up and ramp down should be enough.

 

[PupChow]

I think slow ramp-up and ramp down should be enough.

Thank you, will try that and report back!

 

[oh207]

Very interesting behavior and theories. But keep in mind that the issue might just be with the clownfish.
Since you already have ramping and blues on before, I'm not sure how much it will help if you adjust the light ramping even more to accommodate the fish.
:badfish

 

[gremliw]

wow this is an interesting topic, any updates after ramping light up idea?

 

[PupChow]

Hey guys, checking back in. For the last few days I played with the light, instead of the tank switching to all blue an hour before & after the main light, I kept the main light and just ramp down the power over that one hour period. It seems to really help cut down on the aggression and I haven't seen the male clown pinned up into the corner for awhile. I will observe and make small tweaks the next few days but I think ThRoewer may have hit the nail on the head.

I talked about this experience with a very knowledgeable person at a LFS (Marine Biologist and deals with clownfish a lot), he mentioned that clowns cannot see the color blue so the color temp probably was not a factor. What do you guys think? Was it just the intensity of the light instead of the color temperature? I suppose there is one easy way to find out...

 

[ThRoewer]

I knew that marine fish don't see (well) in the red spectrum but am kind of surprised that there is claim they can't see blue and have somewhat doubts about that claim.
I actually just recently came across an article that marine fish actually are even able to see in the near UV range.

Clownfish not being able to see blue also doesn't fit my own observations that all my clownfish clearly react when the blue light turns off.

I think the issue here was rather that the abrupt change in color temperature made the head band shape change abruptly in the eyes of the female which then didn't recognize the male anymore.

 

[PupChow]

I agree with you ThRoewer, after removing the blue light period in the aquarium's lighting schedule, there is almost no aggression between the two clowns. In fact, the male was caught checking out the BTA, I hope this is an indicator of them finally moving into the anemone!

Thanks for all the help, here's a video of the no-longer-fighting pair!


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