clowns fighting

[sweet d]

ive had 2 clowns in my tank for prolly 4 months now i had one first prolly about a half inch long i then added another clown prolly about 2 and a half inces long,i was hoping the would become a mated pair but recently ive noticed a lot of aggression from the big one towards the little one is there any explanation for this?the only thing i can think is that the little guy has grown and since they are not "mated" the big one is attacking him.but i dont know any help would be appreciated b4 the little one gets killed.thanks

 

[danreefs]

I say its just 4 play. lol

 

[sweet d]

wow thats the best answer ???foreplay??lol ok

 

[a-T-m]

I'm pretty sure he meant for play, not foreplay.

The aggression is normal, the big clown is putting the little guy in his place. It's part of the process of them becoming a mated pair, the larger/female clown has to display her dominance over the smaller, and the little one has to submit to her authority. I'd say that as long as you don't have aggressive clowns like maroons or saddlebacks, then you shouldn't worry about it too much.

 

[sweet d]

THANK YOU A-T-M i appreciate the info i will keep a eye on them.

 

[Ethan_W]

yup. if the bigger one wasnt a female already, then it probably recently went through a sex change sometime within the last few months or weeks. or could be the smaller one going through it. it happens whether u have a bigger one and smaller one or they are the same size. the more aggressive one displays its dominance by picking on the other one. the agressive one becomes the female, the other the male

 

[sweet d]

what if i put a bta in the tank with these 2 clowns good or bad idea?

 

[DeadDuck]

One thing to mention that's been hinted at in this thread, but not explicitly stated: clownfish are born either male or sexually immature. (I'm not sure which one it is and it seems that there hasn't been conclusive evidence either way.) But it is accepted that the dominant clownfish will change sex to female. (Either from sexually immature -> male -> female or male -> female) Furthermore, a female can never change back to a male. It's a one-way change.

So a clownfish left alone in a tank will eventually become female. In a mated pair, the larger clownfish is the female and the smaller is the male.

In this case, it seems that you've had a single clownfish in the tank. I'm not sure how long it's been in there, but it may have become female, even though it sounds a bit smallish. If you happen to introduce another female, they may fight a lot because both are going to try to claim territory. Have either one submitted?

- How long has your first fish (the 1/2" one) been the only clownfish in the tank?
- When you purchased the second fish, was this one alone at the fish store or was it paired with another one?

We just paired an allardi clown on Tuesday. We had a single female for a few months now. We ordered a male clown from our LFS. They got 3 clowns in the store: 1 large one, 1 medium one, and 1 small one. They all seemed pretty friendly with each other. We took the medium one.

When we first introduced the medium one to the tank, our female - who is still larger - rushed at him a lot and forced him to stay in the corner and in the rocks. However, the next day they were seen swimming together and she doesn't pick on him nearly as much. I'm hoping this is an indication that they're pairing. Not sure if this is typical or fast for pairing up fish. I'm sure there will still be some squabbles.

 

[MajorKook]

I also have the same issue. I have a pair of B&W ocellaris clowns. I bought them as juvies, less than an inch long and now the larger one is about 2 inches and twice the size of the male. I've had them for about 8 months now. The male's fins are all shredded up.

Is this normal behavior even after 8 months?

 

[SwampyBill]

SupaJSK-Personally, I'd take the male out if it's getting that beat up & his fins are that shredded...Sounds like too much aggression from female & he'll end up dead soon...

 

[DustinB]

You could put the male in a QT tank, play kung fu videos and the eye of the tiger song for a few weeks.

:uzi:

Is there any possible way they both could have turned female? Does the male do the twitchy dance?

 

[MajorKook]

Yea, actually they do that twitching thing a lot. It's strange, it seems like they have some love/hate thing going on. They host in an open brain and usually hang out right above it. They are swimming together 80% of the time. The female isn't actively attacking the male all the time. In fact, I don't see much of the fighting because every time I come up to the tank they start getting excited for food.

They have always gotten along great, but recently I moved my tank and everything got redone inside the tank. Could the new environment be causing this?

 

[SwampyBill]

The twitching (looks like epileptic seizures) is part of their whole dominance/submission dance. It does sound like they're going through the pairing up ritual, just with very rough foreplay... Keep a close eye on if she's still being so aggressive as to tear his fins more, & if so, remove him; otherwise, if they've figured it out, & the aggression lessens, you may be well on your way to a cool little mated pair of clowns. Good luck!