fighting clowns

[bluetanggirl]

I have 2 black and white clowns and they keep darting at each others fins but there are not any bite marks or chunks taken out of the fins of the fish. They do it every time I walk in the room and when they get to close to each other. Is there anything that I can do to keep them from I guess "fighting." By the way they are in a 20 gallon fish tank and, I am currently trying to find a 40L gallon fish tank.

 

[Mook Man]

I don't know that there's anything you can really do - my true percs have been doing that for a while, like a month, no injuries or anything. What they're doing is establishing who's going to be the dominent one. I'd also like to know when mine will stop doing it - I can only assume eventually. If both are eating normally I'd imagine that there'd be no ill effects; are they around the same size?

 

[Zaita]

If they are sorting out dominance, then you can expect the female to always show a slight bit of aggression towards the male. She is clearly in charge, and will often tell him that.

 

[bluetanggirl]

If they are sorting out dominance dosent one have to be bigger than the other??

 

[Raibaru]

How big are these clowns and how long have you had them?

As long as they aren't both mature females then they are probably working out dominance and one will turn into a female eventually and it will subside.

 

[Mike31154]

If one was larger than the other, the dominance issue would be sorted out more quickly. Since I assume they are close to the same size, it may take a little longer. Don't know about Black & White clowns, but my Maroons were close to the same size when I added number two. It took about 3-4 weeks to sort it out. Following that, the winner put on a growth spurt and doubled in size in just over a month. She is now 3 times as large as the male.

 

[Mook Man]

Interesting/unfortunate story - I'm sitting on my couch this evening and my more dominant soon-to-be female is chasing the male around as usual - I hear a ::splash:: then a :lop:: and am like "oh crap I think I know what just happened." She had sailed over the divider in the Solana and landed in a tiny area of water in my skimmer chamber - needless to say she was a bit bewildered, as was I. Anyway, I got her back into the display portion within 10-15 minutes and my other little guy began posturing against her, which he has never done. After another half hour or so she seems to have oriented herself again and realizes "hey, I know this fish, I'm not going to take this!" She's now back to showing her dominance, no worse for wear it appears save for a tiny abrasion on her lip; I hope her little field trip didn't set back the process any.

 

[bluetanggirl]

I have had them for 2 weeks today. One is slightly bigger than the other, and that is the one that is darting at the other one.