My Clarkii is a murderer!

[TenKreefer]

I have a clarkii that I've had for about 2 years now and just last week I decided that I wanted him to pair up with another clarkii, so I went to my LFS bought one (about 1.5" in size. established clarkii is about 3.5"). Anyways at first I acclimated the new clownfish, and the two were nice to each other for about 10 minutes, then all hell broke loose. So I seperated the two with an eggcrate barrier, for about 2 days. Once I finally let the little clarkii out again they were fine. When I returned from work the larger clarkii was dragging the younger clarkii by the face into her "lair", and then consumed shortly thereafter.

What I want to know is how can I make this a more peacful process? I would love to have a pair of clarkii's but this dude is EXTREMELY aggresive. Any fish in the tank (other than a yellow watchman goby) he completely dominates and nips at.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

He is no longer a he. Being a single clown in a tank for so long, it has fully matured into a female clown. The only thing I can think to try would be to remove the current clarkii to a separate tank, rescape the tank, then add the established clown in at the same time as the new clown.

 

[bues0022]

Though you purchased a smaller clarkii, a 1.5" clarkii is likely large enough to have developed into a female. You could have inadvertently introduced a second female into the tank which definitely is a disaster waiting to happen. You are going to want to try to find the smallest clarkii you can possibly find. Leave it in the egg-crate barrier or net for some time, not just 2 days. Possibly a week or more for her to accept him.