Killer Clown! It was a slaughter...

[jcono]

Hello-

Sad incident to report. A few days ago I added 6 BG chromis and a small jawfish to my 90 gal. tank. Current inhabitants were a pair of occ. clowns that are hosted by an anemone, lg. foxface, banggai cardinal, royal gramma, lemonpeel dwarf angel, mc cosker's wrasse, and small mandarin.

The larger of the 2 clowns (I guess the female) went NUTS and one- by- one ripped apart the chromis. I tried to get a net in there to stop the horror but no luck. By the time I was able to get to a chromis to put it in my sump it was already too ripped up. Only one lived because he and the jawfish escaped into the overflow and ended up in my sump!!

I did not forsee this- only a few weeks ago I introduced the mandarin, gramma, and wrasse and had no problems.

Only after the massacre did I read up on how aggressive clowns can be; I knew that some are nasty but thought my tank raised occilaris' would be O.K.

Should I move the larger clown to my sump for a while or is it no use= I'd have to get rid of her to add anything else?

Thanks for your advice,
Jano

 

[3seconds2live]

It may have just been the chromis that rubbed the clown the wrong way. I dont think you should try adding any more chromis though. Killed 5 bg chromis wow!!!!

 

[EaZy DuZ iT]

WOW. I have 2 clownfishes. One is 1 inch long, the other 1 and 1/2 inches. The Bigger one is the bully. At one point the bigger one would bite the little one and i noticed the smaller one getting weaker, less of color and it started having bite marks around its fins, and tails. I took out the smaller one and placed it in a different tank for about 5 months. Now I put them back together and so far their doing fine. I never knew these little bastards were this mean. I THOUGHT THEY WERE COMMUNITY FISHES!@#$ ;[

 

[Ben_Im]

How much and how often do you feed your clownfish?

 

[DeathWish302]

The only surprise is that it happened with occys'. My tomato clowns are NOT happy campers when I go into the tank near their happy place. I've had bloody nips from the male.

 

[mikev_us]

I had an occy who would jump out of the tank to bite my hand when I went to the tank. I could just hold my hand over the water and the little guy would clear two inches above the surface to bite. Clowns can definitely be mean.

 

[jcono]

I feed twice a day, usually a good pinch of quality flakes or pellets in the a.m., and then frozen stuff or pellets in the p.m.

 

[larryp68]

Jcono, welcome to the world of clown-fish. It seems once they get it in their minds to attack there isn't any stopping them. The chromis all looked the same so in her mind she was just getting rid of the one and for some reason it just kept coming back so she kept trying to get rid of it. My advice is to not add any more fish unless your prepared to do rescue operations. Or placing the fish in a clear acylic box with holes to allow the other fish to get used to is always a good idea.

Larry

 

[Doni]

Sad story Sorry to hear it.

Many years ago I had a spawning pair of A. occellaris (orange) in my reef tank that would not allow any new fish in the tank at all. The female would relentlessly chase the newcomer no matter what type of fish it was. I tried putting the female in the sump for up to 2 weeks but as soon as she returned to the display she would begin chasing the newcomer. I eventually gave the pair away to a friend.
I currently have a breeding pair of A.perculas in my reef and they have never displayed such aggressive behavior.

 

[AC-WEB]

That is a frightning story because those fish should generally get along, especially in a 90 gallon tank. I am now worried because I have a pair of pers with some bg chromis. The black ocellaris has been nipping at the chromis, but not done any damage, but I worry about the future.

AC-WEB

 

[jcono]

Possibly as was suggested the larger clown just got the idea that they had to go. What may have set it off was that the chromis were distressed since they were just being acclimated/ introduced into the tank.

 

[Saltwaternooby]

Could be getting ready to spawn also. They can be mean....

 

[lilmonster]

I had the same thing happen,
added 3 chromis, and my clown attack and killed them,
I didn't see her do it till there was one left, but he didn't make it.