My clown bite me SEVERAL times

tmplge

Premium Member
Well, today my false perc bit me for the first time. She has never done this before. It started as nips and it just got stronger after about 10 minutes to the point where I had to put gloves on to feed my coral. Once I had the glove on, she soon began to bite and hold. Imagine a dog biting you and shaking its head around, thats what this beast did! I doubt theres anything I can do to change her behavior. Shes aggressive, killed a six line a few months ago. Im gona be re-scaping the tank so Im hoping that will calm her down a little. Any recomendations guys?
 
Gloves lol, is it a maroon clown perhaps? Or tomato? They are notorious for being aggressive to tankmates, and tank makers, lol. My female perc attacks me anytime my hand is on her anemones half of the tank, and yes, it does hurt. I haven't really found anyway to make it stop. I flicked her once and she stopped...lol
 
No its a perc. She killed her mate about 2 months ago. Well, I chase her away but it dosnt help. Even when I was using a syringe to feed the corals and fish she was totally ignoring the food and just concentrating on where to attack. I must say, she is smart. She stoped bitting my glove when i stopped reacting and began to jump at my wrist where the skin is exposed. She was jumping out of the water to do it. I think im in for a real adventure with her.
 
she sounds like a sweetheart
my female maroon like to bite me when i cant see because she knows im as flincher
 
my maroon bites me whenever I stick my hand within one foot of her anemone and she's big enough to draw blood now - she's about 7 or 8 inches now!!
 
Im thinking it may be sexual frustration. she needs a mate. im redoing the tank wedensday or thursday and shes the only fish thats going back in. ill get her a mate and pair them off.

I want to get a sandsifting goby, do you guys think i should give it about a week alone in the tank to secure its territory before i put the clown in? Im also planning a stardust blenny. What order should i introduce them since the clown is aggressive? I was thinking take the clowns out when i get the goby, give it a week alone. then get the blenny and give it a week before i put the clowns back.
 
shes protecting her territory its all built into to the fish. my black and white ocellaris do it when i get close to their anemone and they go after a7" queen angel and a 6" passer angel as well as anything else that comes too close. changing the layout of the tank isnt going to stop the behavior.
 
Well she has a huge territory becuase she attacks me regardless of where my hand is.

What order do you guys think I should introduce the sandsifting goby, blenny and percs into the tank when I redo it?
 
I agree with the flicking method. I plunk my maroon on the head when she moves in. She still attacks but she is more hesitant now. No more green beret sneaky attacks. CORPORAL PUNISHMENT!!!!
 
Our false perc lady did this same thing to us for a while. Acutally, she only attacked my husband :) We noticed she seemed to be protective, but we also noticed some other things.

First, she knows just where to bite to get the maximum reaction! Right between the fingers, she's about three inches and she's drawn blood once.

Second, she would get really wound up when we used the turkey baster for feeding. We noticed she was much more aggressive when he used the green topped baster. Don't know if anyone has studied whether or not they can see color, but that seems to be what set her off the most - and the fact that my husband was attached to it!

One of the other things we noticed was that she calmed down. She rarely attacks now. I'm not sure if she just got comfortable and began trusting us, if she mellowed out, or just what it was.

She attacked a year or so ago (that's when she drew blood) but it was because Paul messed with her anemone. She wasn't very happy with him. She was pretty aggressive for a few weeks, but then mellowed out again.

I don't know what order to but the first two fish in, but I would definately put your clowns in last if she's that aggressive. Then the other fish know the layout of the tank and can hide if necessary.

Someone on here uses those specimen containers (the ones the lfs uses to put your fish in after they catch it) when they're introducing a new clown. He said it's worked everytime, you might want to try asking about it.

Good luck!
 
moving the fish and putting them in is not going to remedy the situation they will find a nice spot again and resume. or they may calm down

as for the clowns themselves i think someone did a study and they can see about 3ft maybe more away from the tank and can tell the differences between people.

some clowns will be more aggressive than others i had a pair of ocellaris that were like molly's they just did their thing and didnt care what or who was around them and i have the pair now that are like little pittbulls.

i would say wear gloves while in the tank and let them attack your hand all they want eventually they will see that attacking your hand does nothing and they should calm down some.

either way removing them and replacing them is only going to force them to find a new place to call home and resume their behavior.
 
i would add the smaller clown first, let it get used to the tank, then introduce the female. the new clown might not do well when introduced to a new environment and having a woman beating on him at the same time. i know i wouldnt :)
 
LOL, they're evil. My maroon just flicks her tail like she's warning me, but has never attacked me. She destroyed everything else in the tank tho.
 
My clown did that. Then one day I got a stuffed animal clown that was about 18 inches. She'd go hide in a corner when she saw that. Now I just bring out the big fake clown when I need to clean the tank.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8792318#post8792318 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rdrash
My clown did that. Then one day I got a stuffed animal clown that was about 18 inches. She'd go hide in a corner when she saw that. Now I just bring out the big fake clown when I need to clean the tank.


:lol: that just might work, and if it doesnt, ill play finding nemo in the background.
 
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