Orange occy beating up my new blacky...Help!

[dynastykid]

Well I introduced a black and white clown to my tank tonight and my established orange was beating the hell out of him...grabbing him from the fin and dragging him, biting him, chasing and darting at him...I turned the lights off and my orange calmed down but, damn I am worried about the lil black guy. He has nips on a couple of his fins and body from what I can tell. I am just worried should I separate them or give them a little more time to get used to each other? I expected a little bit of a dominance show to happen, but not this much...

Let me know what you guys think

 

[ddmiller38]

Clowns can be very territorial especially if you added one a while after already have one. They are usually best introduced as a pair or group. If the behavior continues more than a couple of weeks or turn very violent with one always cowering and being beat up I would seperate.

 

[chuggy]

sounds pretty violent. Everyone assumes clowns are nice cause there (cute) there not there very territorial and mean. If the behavior persists i would seperate em or 1 will end up dead.

 

[Readybreakletgo]

maybe its just enforcing dominance since the bigger/older is a female?

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Let me know what you guys think

the new clown is much smaller, right? :twitch:

 

[dynastykid]

established clown about 2.5 - 3 inches, new clown about 1.5...thanks for all your comments so far. The bully is still on the hunt but not terrorizing him...so we will see in the morning how they look. If I have to separate anyone want a black and white clown near me (Elyria, Oh)...maybe up for sale or trade if it doesn't work out.

 

[vietcu]

Blacks in my experience are not as mean as the orange ones. I had 2 establish black in my DT, they wre 3" prob. Added 2 smaller Orange to the tank, they were chased but were never grabbed by the fins and pulled anywhere. I suggest taking a real close look tomorrow to see how things goes, or else you will end up with a dead clownfish soon.

 

[dynastykid]

really sucks when you have all these great hopes and dreams for your tank and you take chances and it backfires...hope all is good in the morn

 

[acer]

Maybe move some rock around to disorient the established clown and change what they think is their territory. .

 

[dynastykid]

well, my lights came on about an hour ago. The black clown hid in a cave all night and the orange found him this morning. It took the black clown about an hour to come out of the cave once the lights came on, but now they are swimming around the tank together. No violent acts yet today, so hopefully all is well and they are buddy buddy now. The black def got a little beat up though...a few of his fins are nipped at, but overall he looks pretty good much more comfortable.

 

[Readybreakletgo]

lug nut...