Leucs getting aggressive again

WDLV

WDLV

Skunk Hybrid Freak
I'm debating whether I should separate my leucs. The male is causing trouble with the female and she's letting him have it when he does. I think it's kind of odd because usually the females attack the males just because they can. In this case it's like the male is egging her on. Yesterday his fins on one side were getting that whitish appearance that they get when they have been bitten several times. Not quite freyed, but notable. Also there were a couple spots where his scales were damaged or missing but the damage was localized to the right side of his body. I thought he was getting sick before I sat down to observe them for a while.

I'm trying to figure out if this might be pre-mating behavior or just a bad match. They've been together for like three years but have been moved from tank to tank and never got along that well... compared to other species. IDK if it's just their normal dimeanor or if it's a bad match.
 
Walt

Walt

Do they stay in the same anemone?

Otherwise if your male is small enough i have a very porky female for him lol.
 
That tank does not have a host anemone because it is overrun with aptasia but they do share a large sinularia.
 
Not if size is any indication. The size difference being similar to that of mated A. sandaracinos pairs.
The following picture is not very good but does give an indication of their size. It was taken in March. They have not grown since this was taken. The sinularia takes up about a third of the tank. I'll see if I can post a current picture.
3-13-2010001.jpg


EDIT: In fact looking back I had them in a tank with 3 other leucokranos a sandaracinos, an ocellaris and a thiellei just to see if they would re-pair and they chose to stay together. the male was not pictured here. It was in the anemone obscured by the rock work.
JulyleuctubM002.jpg
 
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Reefvette said:
How small is the male?

I know its terrible to say but i want your male lol.

I would get them a host.
Click to expand...

I will NEVER sell my male. He's the first rare fish I ever got. Probably had him 5 years now (MACNA 2005.) Before you ask, I kept him with larger clowns to keep him male. I'm pretty attached to the female too. Worst case, I might separate them and re-pair them or just put them in a large tank with a crap load of anemones, sandaracinos and chrysopterus just for effect.

As much as I would like to, I cannot add a host. There are wall to wall aptasia covering almost every square inch of the tank. Any anemone I got would be dead very quickly. I recently added a CBB to see how that does.
 
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I took this this morning before I left. It shows the size of the pair, the aptasia problem and my hope for an aptasia remedy so I can start adding anemones as this tank was intended to house.
Leucs6-15-2010.jpg
 
WOW! I think you need a bigger butterfly. LOL.

But seriously, I think you are very knowledgeable about clowns, so if you can't figure out this behavior, I doubt a bunch of us on the Internet will be able to. All I can offer is my experience with my old pair of maroons. They typically get along pretty well. If I skip a day or two of feeding, she becomes aggressive. It seems as though anything that may cause stress, like hunger, can cause a little misplaced aggression. Is there anything that could be causing the fish stress? Have you missed feedings, or changed foods? Just guessing here.
 
Elegance,
There are guys out there who have bred leucokranos. I feel like an infant compared to those guys but I do appreciate the vote of confidence. Funny you should mention the food thing. The side effect of the aptasia problem is that when I feed the tank, anything that hits the walls is eaten immediately. I have no idea how much they actually get in a given feeding.

Vette,
This is the worst aptasia problem I've ever seen and is why I have considered breaking this tank down and bleaching it. I think it's from scrubbing the walls to get rid of the bryopsis. I am looking to get some berghia nudibranchs too. They'll probably do a better job anyway once they start reproducing. Then they'll die off and the butterfly should knock out any that pop up.
 
QT? Yes, but not as long as I would have liked.

Because I'm leaving in a week I wanted to make sure that:
A. He wouldn't be overfed by the sitter and foul the 10 gallon tank.
B. If there were bullying problems, that I could recognize them before I left and if he had anything that I didn't see that wasn't killed off by the hypo, I would have a week to treat my other clowns.

Not very responsible but I'm human too.

It's definately not burns. I saw the female biting him in the same spots that the marks appeared. That said it could be what's ticking him off.
 
Wow, that is a serious aiptasia problem. I think ultimately you'll have to go with the bleaching idea. That, or release about five peps in there and let them have at it. I am guessing they are in the filtration system too? I hate aiptasia.
 
No doubt. It's in all parts of the system but not like it is in that display. I was talking with another member via PM and explained that I will need to buy a new display tank to start the new system anyway. When I do it will give me the opportunity to clean that one out.
I don't see myself ever being totally free of them but would like to get them back under control with natural predators. It's probably beyond natural predation at this point. Something needs to be done that will involve a partial breakdown and the predators can be used to keep stragglers that pop up at bay.
 
WDLV said:
I think it's embarresing.
Click to expand...

LOL...

I had them pretty bad at one point in one of my broodstock systems, but only on the LR. Ended up taking them out and bleaching. Then I eventually took down the system and the rock has been dried out and waiting for a new system one day. Sorry, but yours takes the cake...I haven't ever seen it so thick. I keep a pep in each of my systems that dont have corals to help combat small outbreaks, when they cant keep up or in my tanks that have corals, I make a Kalk paste. I am sure you have heard all the remedies before, ....that is what works best for me. Good luck. You were brave to post that pic!
 
I think berghia and that copper band will take care of your problem but it wont happen fast at first.
 
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