Help! My Clowns are fighting

[Maraschiello]

Hello,

Last week my bigger of the 2 clowns jumped to his/her death and my smaller clown has been very lonely. My LFS said any clown will work with the smaller Oc Clown. So I bought a non-paired B&W clown yesterday. They swim together but then attack eachother a pretty good amount. I dont want to lose my smaller clown, it was the first fish i bought. and I dont want to see the B&W one in pain either. They dont chase each other, its more face to face combat and some fin nipping. What should I do? Thanks

-Paul

 

[acrodave]

i would let them work it out. as long as they are not ripping each other up

 

[Maraschiello]

to add onto that, the B&W clown is a little bit bigger. But the smaller was has always been the smaller one and not dominant

 

[Maraschiello]

i would let them work it out. as long as they are not ripping each other up

What would signify "not good" fighting behavior?

 

[youpey]

how long have they been fighting for? it is common for them to fight a bit, but if one looks like he is killing the other then this isnt good. typically the smaller one will give in and they will be happy

was the one you bought the only clown in the tank. if it was, find out from the place you got it from how long it was the only clown in the tank. if it was more then 2 weeks there is a good chance it has become female, and they WILL fight to the death.

once a clown becomes female (most dominant) then it will always be female and cant go back, and you cant have 2 females vying for dominance, one will win, one will die.

the BEST way to introduce a new clown to a tank that already has a clown, is to get a small clown that isnt the only one in the tank and isnt close to the biggest in the tank. if there are more then 1 clown in the tank and you get the biggest, then you will be buying the female. get the smallest one you can get and make sure it isnt the only one in the tank

 

[Maraschiello]

the old clown in my tank was alone for 5 days and was not the dominant one. The B&W clown was tanked alone so it was not in the tank with other clowns tank raised oc clowns. They said it was non paired so then it could be a female, but the clown in my tank prior was definately not

 

[youpey]

i dont know if the clown would become female in 5 days. i have always read 2 weeks. it could be that your old clown is trying to become female.

keep a close eye on them. if the fighting gets really bad then you may wish separate them

 

[jt_milstead]

Watch them closely. B&W's are famous for being very aggressive.

 

[lkc]

When I first got a little BW clown for my big female, she tried to kill him. I put eggcrate int the tank to split it in half. After a few days of her attacking the eggcrate, I pulled it out, turn off all the lights and they started cuddling in a corner because they were so scared of the darkness. They became best buddies by morning. You could try that.