Victims of Clown Fish Attacks

[phasezero]

Anyone else own these vicious animals that show no mercy to your hands? Finding nemo forgot to portray this side of clown fishes. Just tried to aquascape their Anemone island the last 2 hours and damn I've never been so frustrated by little fish. I wore thin latex gloves this time and mine are like attack dogs that bite down and thrash around for 4-5 seconds while holding their grip. I can't imagine owning some of those 4-6 inch clowns. Post about your abusive clown.

Picture of the attacker when she was much smaller.

 

[NirvanaFan]

I know how you feel. My ocellaris female frequently draws blood. She has gone on a few rides half way across the room when she latches onto my hand and I pull it out of the tank quickly.

You can try wearing thicker gloves. Mine didn't bite the latex more than a couple times. They didn't like the taste of it. Maybe a pair of dishwashing gloves or something similar. If you have a metal watch that is water proof, she may attack that and decide that she doesn't like biting metal.

 

[BonsaiNut]

Try swimming over a bunch of nesting damsels in the wild

I was snorkeling in Tahiti over a bed of staghorns that came up to about 3' from the surface. It was loaded with big damsels that were nesting and each one had a very specific brooding area they were defending against all comers... including me. They wouldn't attack while I was facing them, but the second I would turn my back they would dart out and bite my legs. I had two or three of them after me at any time. It's one thing to see them bite your hand or arm - it's another to see them come after your entire body! They are fearless.

 

[jscarlata]

lol, good stuff...my larger perc has been getting a LOT closer to my hand whenever i am in the tank doing something...she hasnt bitten me yet, but i can tell that she is thinking it...

 

[cichlidconvert]

My picasso female gives me little love bites. But the female occelaris puts a whooping on me. She got better once I threw in a bunch of nems. Now I think she gets confused about which one she is defending lol.

 

[phasezero]

lol, good stuff...my larger perc has been getting a LOT closer to my hand whenever i am in the tank doing something...she hasnt bitten me yet, but i can tell that she is thinking it...

Lol uh oh. Youll know for sure if shes one of these clownfishes when she comes to your hand and keeps pacing from side to side. A month after that she got bolder and started tail whipping me lightly. Then you know what happened next.

 

[lclark209]

My little tomato darts around my hand, and will occasionally bump into it...My niger trigger on the other hand. He's scared the crap out of me a couple times. I swear he does sneak attacks...and I can hear the other trigger humming the Mission Impossible theme...little brats.

 

[phasezero]

My little tomato darts around my hand, and will occasionally bump into it...My niger trigger on the other hand. He's scared the crap out of me a couple times. I swear he does sneak attacks...and I can hear the other trigger humming the Mission Impossible theme...little brats.

Lol that hilarious. Does the trigger bump into your hand? or does he actually bite you?.

There's a guy at a lfs who I feel sorry for. He had to clean the display tank and aquascape a bit. Of course the full grown 5 inch maroon was not gonna have it. I see the guy clutching his hand as blood runs down his arm. In the corner of my eye I see the maroon clown bull doze with his head grape fruit sized rocks onto the ground because they were too close to his anemone.

 

[acbaro]

Haha these stories are making me laugh but worried. I just setup my tank bout a month ago and purchased my first clown last week and I'll definitely be watching out for my vicious pirahna in a clown body haha.

 

[SeaSiCDiver]

Tts funny this thread came up i cleaned my take the other night and my occelaris female started attacking my hand when i came close to her bubble tip nem.. and she was mean!!

I neglected to tell my girlfriend of this encounter (I though it was a fluke), and the next morning like she always does went to feed the nem some shrimp... them BAM! victim number 2 to the clownfish attack.. little guy held on for a good 2 sec. hahah! She screamed now she wont stick her hand in there anymore lol

 

[phasezero]

Tts funny this thread came up i cleaned my take the other night and my occelaris female started attacking my hand when i came close to her bubble tip nem.. and she was mean!!

I neglected to tell my girlfriend of this encounter (I though it was a fluke), and the next morning like she always does went to feed the nem some shrimp... them BAM! victim number 2 to the clownfish attack.. little guy held on for a good 2 sec. hahah! She screamed now she wont stick her hand in there anymore lol

lol I love it. My fiance didn't believe me and thought I was full of it when I told her the clownfish has started biting. I had her help me move my tank and help me aquascape. The tank was cloudy as hell and she holding precious rocks that had the anemones attached along with a bunch of SPS corals. She had to hold the rock for for a minute while i moved stuff. Man did they go to town on her, double teamed. She was screaming every few seconds and splashing water everywhere because she kept jerking her arm out.

The cruel person inside me wants to toss my 4"+ Clarkii in there to smack them around and take their home. Oh I only wish. LOL. Thankfully the Clarkii that we've had the past 2 years is an angel. After this event she swore to never get a lover boy for the Clark in order to prevent any sort of temperament change, because I would definitely be traumatized if this one was a biter.

Although, any fish with stripes is a death wish in the clarkii's tank. We introduced a convict tang and only 2 seconds after hitting the water it was practically jumping out of the water to escape the clown. I thought it might be because the clown was established, so we moved the clown out to a different tank and kept the tang in there. 6 months later we put the clown back in with the tang, history repeated itself in 2 seconds yet again.

 

[CMS!]

Every time I put my hand in my tank my clown starts to swim around it and a couple seconds later it starts to bump my hand and than hit it with it tail and than swim away fast.

 

[jbowen]

My occie goes for the skin in between my fingers. He must know that is the most sensitive part.

 

[Tmoriarty]

I guess I am lucky, False and True percs are almost cuddlers, I have had the male actually go into my palm like my hand was its host. I did however finally get them to associate with a Magnifica today, This will most likely change their mood.

I have a Sebae female, decent size in with a haddoni and a Humu humu, she is nice to me but mean as hell to anything else in the tank. She beats up the picasso if its anywhere near her nem. I put my hand in the tank and she leaves me alone.... the picasso though likes to sample my fingers.... it scares my wife cause you can actually hear it bite, its not quite.

 

[lclark209]

Lol that hilarious. Does the trigger bump into your hand? or does he actually bite you?.

Full on bites. He's drawn blood a few times. And to think I got into this hobby for this specific fish. To own a niger trigger. He also likes to pick frag plugs up off rocks and throw them to the sand. I kid you not. I'll fight to set new frags on my rock work, stand back to admire my work and watch him pick them up and chuck em to the sand.

 

[lmsmith]

Full on bites. He's drawn blood a few times. And to think I got into this hobby for this specific fish. To own a niger trigger. He also likes to pick frag plugs up off rocks and throw them to the sand. I kid you not. I'll fight to set new frags on my rock work, stand back to admire my work and watch him pick them up and chuck em to the sand.

My blue tang does that. He's dynamite with frags and corals. I don't think it's intentional, but rather he's just a big clumsy boy who hits everything.

 

[Sytje1234]

Anyone else own these vicious animals that show no mercy to your hands? Finding nemo forgot to portray this side of clown fishes. Just tried to aquascape their Anemone island the last 2 hours and damn I've never been so frustrated by little fish. I wore thin latex gloves this time and mine are like attack dogs that bite down and thrash around for 4-5 seconds while holding their grip. I can't imagine owning some of those 4-6 inch clowns. Post about your abusive clown.

Picture of the attacker when she was much smaller.

That is such a beautiful anemone. Nice!

 

[Brewchief]

I have a pair of fairly large Clarkii Clowns in my 90 gallon tank and they never bother me when I have my hand in there. Maybe it's because they have 7 BTAs to hide in. However, I have a pair of ocellaris in my 39 gallon Seahorse tank and the female will swim into my hand when it is palm up but will bite the back of my hand when I'm working on the aqua-scape or cleaning. The male doesn't bother me at all when my hand is in the tank but when I feed the tank frozen Mysis he will jump out of the water and hit the side of the small portion cup that I use to thaw the Mysis.

 

[ousnakebyte]

Try swimming over a bunch of nesting damsels in the wild

I was snorkeling in Tahiti over a bed of staghorns that came up to about 3' from the surface. It was loaded with big damsels that were nesting and each one had a very specific brooding area they were defending against all comers... including me. They wouldn't attack while I was facing them, but the second I would turn my back they would dart out and bite my legs. I had two or three of them after me at any time. It's one thing to see them bite your hand or arm - it's another to see them come after your entire body! They are fearless.

I had a similar experience when doing a survey once. I was trying to follow my transect line (minding my own business and recording my data...), and I kept feeling something hitting my head - 2 or 3 times, like someone was "bopping" me on the head. Turns out... someone was. I looked up and was face-to-face with a large three-spot damsel.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - if damsels were as big as sharks.... I WOULD NOT get in the ocean.

Cheers
Mike

 

[bradam]

I had a pair of maroons with the female being abit over 5 inches long. She started with just ramming my hand, then moved on to biting, but eventually she found it more effective to grab and rip out my arm hairs. Ended up selling the pair after getting bloodied a few times. Cheaper then laser hair removal though I suppose =)