Need help with my clownfish please !!!

[funkehouse]

Hello,

I am fairly new to reef keeping , my tank has been up just under a year , so i definitely consider myself a novice compared to the guys with decades under their belt !

I have had a Medium sized Occy Clown in my tank for about 6 months , and it has been doing great, i have a Red Tip Bubble Anemone and it loved its new home since the first day i put it in. about 2 months ago i decided to get a new clown, i got a very small Occy, about an inch long and put it in the tank, everything went very smoothly, within a week both clowns were happily enjoying the RBTA. No problems at all up until today, and all off the sudden the bigger clown is VERY aggressively chasing the smaller clown, it is relentless and its hard to watch, i feel SO bad for the little fish, i have been told this is normal clown behavior, if it is how long does this last? a few days? a week? a month? I just dont want the little guy to die from exhaustion or something.

im going to include a video , this is NOT my tank though, but i found this video online and the behavior is almost identical, but mine might be even more aggressive, at least some of the time. Please watch the very short video and tell me if this is normal and approx. how long i can expect this to go on for, and any other advice you can give me, i am very new at this and would love some good advice on this, thank you SO much taking time to read this and to help me ! here is the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=D-yOvb-XRoc

 

[footballdude2k3]

I personally never dealt with anything like that with mine. I would watch them closely, I would also post this in the clown/anem section of the website to see what they say. If it gets too bad you might want to try and remove one of them for a bit, but I would gather more opinions before doing anything like that. In any case, I would at least have a QT tank starting to get ready.

 

[Xadieu]

Won't know for sure how long it will last, we had same problem with our office tank, the clowns were happy and one day it just turned on her mate and killed him. Sorry I dont have hands on with this problem maybe someone who encountered the same problem and shine a light on this.

 

[funkehouse]

I personally never dealt with anything like that with mine. I would watch them closely, I would also post this in the clown/anem section of the website to see what they say. If it gets too bad you might want to try and remove one of them for a bit, but I would gather more opinions before doing anything like that. In any case, I would at least have a QT tank starting to get ready.

Thank you very much, im not super familiar with this forum, i didnt know that there was a Clown & anemone forum ! thank you ! It certainly is a weird situation considering it just started out of nowhere today. im hoping its Hormones that got kicked on or something. I actually did put the little guy in clear plastic container in the tank so he is protected from the big guy until i can get some more answers about this. if they tell me to move him back in i will do so, but i dont want him to die in the mean time ! Thanks for the help !

 

[footballdude2k3]

Thank you very much, im not super familiar with this forum, i didnt know that there was a Clown & anemone forum ! thank you ! It certainly is a weird situation considering it just started out of nowhere today. im hoping its Hormones that got kicked on or something. I actually did put the little guy in clear plastic container in the tank so he is protected from the big guy until i can get some more answers about this. if they tell me to move him back in i will do so, but i dont want him to die in the mean time ! Thanks for the help !

No worries, I really hope it works out, sorry I couldn't do much more than say ask somebody else haha

 

[funkehouse]

No worries, I really hope it works out, sorry I couldn't do much more than say ask somebody else haha

thats alright, im sure i will find the info i need eventually, very few things in this hobby are brand new, most have happened many many thousands of times, im sure many people have had this experience, i just need to see what they have to say !

 

[jamesbaur13]

You could try removing the aggressive fish and let the new one settle in.

 

[funkehouse]

thanks for all the help everyone ! i have them separated but in the same tank right now, and tomorrow when i can keep a good eye on them i will put them back in the same area and monitor them closely, i have been reading this sounds like very normal pairing rituals that clowns go through.

 

[SoLiD]

Not saying this will work for you, but this is what I did when 1 of my 2 newly bonded Snow Onyx Clownfish started showing signs of aggression.

I caught them late one night and put them in a small breeder net.

Then when the lights came on, I became "The Bully" when I noticed any small sign of aggression by sticking my finger in there to chase them around. I noticed when I did this, the huddled together for safety, because I guess they were more afraid of me than anything else. After about 50 of my bullying sessions and about 5 days in confinement, they rarely quarreled again.... Well, at least not to that magnitude.

Now, 2 years later, they are grown and spawning.

 

[MrTuskfish]

Single clowns, of any species, are almost always females. Female clowns may be the most territorial fish that we keep. She has claimed a territory and will defend it to the death (literally). The new clown you added probably has not reached sexual maturity and she doesn't recognize it as a possible mate. Its also possible (unlikely at that size) that the new clown has developed into a female. In that case, nothing will stop until the new clown is killed. If you put the older, female clown in your QT for a couple of weeks, let the new fish establish a territory, then re-introduce the older one; they will probably pair up. Expect some typical squabbles at first, but that should change.

 

[funkehouse]

Not saying this will work for you, but this is what I did when 1 of my 2 newly bonded Snow Onyx Clownfish started showing signs of aggression.

I caught them late one night and put them in a small breeder net.

Then when the lights came on, I became "The Bully" when I noticed any small sign of aggression by sticking my finger in there to chase them around. I noticed when I did this, the huddled together for safety, because I guess they were more afraid of me than anything else. After about 50 of my bullying sessions and about 5 days in confinement, they rarely quarreled again.... Well, at least not to that magnitude.

Now, 2 years later, they are grown and spawning.

Did you put Both of your clowns in that thing? or just one of them? and if so which one, the larger or smaller? I do have something like that already, its not net, its clear plexiglass and it has small holes in it so i may try that. Its been going on all day today, the little guy looks exhausted, but there is no fin nips that i can see so he doesnt look physically hurt at this point.