Continued clown aggression help???

[duganderson]

I had two paired occerlarus clowns that had been together for about 1 year. I removed the bigger female from the tank permanently and added a new black and white occerlarus clown (that was about 1.75" in length) from my LFS about 2.5 month ago. The orange male that was left in the tank was 2" long and a little fatter and wider than the black and white. The black and white quickly hosted the RBTA in my tank. The orange has never been hosted but will brush the RBTA to charge at the black and white one.

They have been together for 3.5 months, but since being together, the orange clown charges at the new black and white occasionally but it does not seem to do any damage. The orange clown will also swim close to the black and white and start shaking.

One month ago, however, the aggression of the orange to the black and white became more intense. The orange one lunges at the black on basically ALL day and sometimes makes contact.

Tonight, the black clown left the RBTA and it seems to be hiding in one of my macro algaes to get away from the orange (but the orange is still bothering him)

Should I remove the more aggressive orange clown permanantly (I don't have a quarentine tank) and replace it? OR do you think they will eventually pair and be friendly. It's been 3.5 months and the orange seems to be getting more aggressive over time.

The only other fish in the 28 g. nano cube is a red firefish.

 

[Dissy]

Why did you break up the pair in the first place? At that point, if you were going to remove one, you probably should have removed them together. You're also mixing 2 different clown species in a small tank. That's not going to go well either.

 

[duganderson]

Why did you break up the pair in the first place? At that point, if you were going to remove one, you probably should have removed them together. You're also mixing 2 different clown species in a small tank. That's not going to go well either.

I wanted to add a Black and White and was hoping to get a clown to be hosted by my RBTA. The research I did, including on forums, suggested this would work out fine.

One question, there is a little damage on the dorsal fin and tail fin from the attacks. Will that damage likely grow back and heal on its own?

 

[Dissy]

I wanted to add a Black and White and was hoping to get a clown to be hosted by my RBTA. The research I did, including on forums, suggested this would work out fine.

One question, there is a little damage on the dorsal fin and tail fin from the attacks. Will that damage likely grow back and heal on its own?

If left alone, with good quality water, yes the fins will heal - usually in less than a monthm depending on the damage sustained.

Did the people that suggested breaking up a pair of clowns, adding one from a different species, and trying to wing it actually KNOW you had a tank that small, and that your clowns were already seemingly paired?

I think for someone to have given you that advice, a lot had to have been missing in the details.

 

[BlueFyre]

Black clowns are NOT a different species. They are still occelaris. My guess is the orange clown is turning female. Since they are pretty close in size there will be some fighting while they work it out. Now if it still seems to not be getting better I would think about removing one of them and replacing it with the smallest clown you can find. They should pair up fine then.

I think most of the time it works out just fine but sometimes it doesn't. I tried to pair a black clown with a picasso and the black clown was just too mean. I waited and waited but it only got worse. So I replaced the black clown with a true perc and they paired up right away.

EDIT: I know that black clowns and percs are a different species but this is a pairing that normally works. It just didn't for me.