Tomato Clown Behavior-is this normal?

[BillyJoeJimBob]

I added a Tomato Clown (2") to my 20L reef tank on Friday. I have 2 other fish in the tank (purple pseudochromis and 6 line wrasse). All are doing well, eating, and are non-aggressive towards each other, and none of them appears stressed.

I have noticed the tomato clown has been stirring up some serious sand. He will hover in a spot for a while and then all of a sudden he will flap so aggressively that a 4" sand crater is created. He has done this 3 or 4 times since Friday. The problem is he is coating my LR and corals with sand. I've cleaned it up a few times already and it is a royal pain. Is this normal behavior or what? Does this behavior mean anything?

 

[Kaiser Tang]

Normal behavior (from my experience anyway). He was always digging a little burrow. I had one in a FOWLR tank. I have crushed coral as the substrate. He would move 3 or 4 pieces at a time untill have burrowed all the way to the glass bottom. When I switched over to a reef tank with sand, he was always digging and stirring up the sand. I finally got rid of him. I had to, my water was always cloudy.

 

[BillyJoeJimBob]

Yeah, I was afraid I would get a response like that!

Thanks for the reply Kaiser Tang

What he is doing sure looks like 'nesting' behavior. Well hmm... He is such a great specimen, I'd hate to trade him in, but he is a total pigpen. Gonna have to see if he chills out or perhaps get him an amemone. He was at my LFS store for months and I executed an impulse buy out of pitty. (He's so cute...)

 

[Kaiser Tang]

Yes, my tomato was very pretty and big! I hated to get rid of him.

 

[Randall_James]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7325772#post7325772 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by BillyJoeJimBob
Yeah, I was afraid I would get a response like that!

Thanks for the reply Kaiser Tang

What he is doing sure looks like 'nesting' behavior. Well hmm... He is such a great specimen, I'd hate to trade him in, but he is a total pigpen. Gonna have to see if he chills out or perhaps get him an amemone. He was at my LFS store for months and I executed an impulse buy out of pitty. (He's so cute...)

An Anemone is a bad fix for this.

it will not stop him from blowing the substrate away
you tank is to small for an Anemone (virtually all that would serve as a host anyway)
your tank is to small to be a stable home for the Anemone
There are a lot of reasons not to acquire an Anemone if not the least only a very small percentage survive in captivity (E.Quadricolor is one of the hardier but is still difficult to keep)

The dust will settle at any rate, the clown will keep the same area clean so it does subside with time.

 

[Big Ying]

My Tomato does this also, but it's in a corner of the tank where the rocks are mostly in the shade anyway. The more annoying thing he does is push and shove coral frags of all sizes. He only picks on certain corals in certain places. I either have to wedge them between something, or superglue them down. It's the only fish I've seen that purposely moves rocks and coral frags.

 

[Randall_James]

My Maroon pair can move rocks and other debris much larger than themselves. The start digging on the side of the object until the substrate caves in allowing the rock to roll away from the spot they are trying to clear. Is really amazing to watch a 2oz fish move a 8oz rock

 

[gallivanmk]

My marroon did the same thing in my 29 gallon. I just had to get used to a big hole in the middle front and the rocks getting covered. Now that she is in the 240, I have seen her do it a couple of times, but I can't even tell...