Perc's fighting time?

[schnell76]

I have a reg. orange false perc and a black/white perc as well. They are both ora tank bred and came from the same aquarium where I bought them so they were getting along fine. They have been in my nano for 2 weeks and the black one looked as if it was establishing dominance. A little chase here and there, nothing bad. Now the orange one has become very aggressive towards the black one and is trying to establish dominance. The orange one is chasing the black one around and keeps pecking at him even when he hides behind a coral or rock. I know there is nothing I can do (other than shut off the lights when it gets too bad) but anyone have experience out there on how long it takes for them to work this out? The black on is starting to show a frayed tail and I don't want this to get bad and one of them end up dead or diseased.

 

[schnell76]

Okay, no one has anything?

As of last night the black one was now the one chasing the orange one. He only let up once I fed them and that seemed to calm them down for an hour. Then the chasing commenced again. The black one does not seem to be hurting the orange one, but the black one sure took a beating the day before. He has three or four white spots that almost look like bruises to me (not ick or anything).

Is this them establishing dominance or has this gone further and now they are just going to fight?

Anyone??

Oh yeah, they are both app 1.25" to 1.5" and came from the same display tank where they were held for a few weeks and getting along well.

 

[DiViNeLeFT]

if they both came from the same tank i doubt you have two females... also they probably are not big enough yet to have determined their sex. my clowns fought horribly for months before they worked out the pecking order. the female will still nip the male on occasion to make sure he knows his role. he will immediatly cower and do the submission seizure and she will let up.

 

[GSMguy]

you have two females
sorry

 

[schnell76]

Yeah, I don't think they have determined sex of themselves at all yet. They seem way too young. They were the only two fish in the tank they came from and had been for the few weeks they were at the sellers. One of them could be the female, but I really doubt it since they are both equally sized.

I just hope they don't continue like this for months like you say yours did. Not sure if they (or myself) can take it.

 

[GSMguy]

also percs dont come in black so you have could have a true and a false perc or two false not two percs also if they are equal size and fighting and in a nano you are in trouble they both want to be female

 

[schnell76]

Well as quickly as they started fighting, they have now laid off each other. The black one looks as if "she" rules and the orange one submits and twitches everytime the black one comes around. The black one still comes after the orange one, just not violently like "she" did before.

So, in my case the battle lasted less than three days

 

[GSMguy]

coo sounds like they are figuring it out black one will get allot bigger quickly that will help
its harder when they are the same size but i think it usually works out i didnt know how young your clowns were when i origionally replied