When clownfish kill each other

Cu455

New member
When clownfish start to get aggressive to each other will it be a slow progression which I will notice overtime or will I come home one day to a beat up clown on his death bed?

I am asking because I broke the clownfish rule of one pair. I have one of each of the following. Cinnamon (fire), occelaris, saddleback, skunk and clarkii. The only other fish in the tank is a matted filefish. I have two anenomes which they all share and rotate. My occelaris and saddleback share sleep in an anenome togeather. They have been togeather for about a year, except the occelaris for a week, he replaced a jumper which I had for a year and the cinnamon I had for about 3 months.

They are in a drilled 75 gallon which I plugged. I am going to remove the plug and add a 55 gallon sump. It's an iron stand so the sump will be in the open, not a dark cabinet. I will prefer to keep them togeather and if I start to see aggresion then I will move whoever to solve the problem. I am worried that once the aggression starts it might be to late for me to notice.
 
It is going to end in disaster. Not if but when. 75 is much too small for any more than 2 mated clowns. Not sure if you will notice or not, but why put them at risk?
 
You're going to end up with 1 clown left. Quite a few of those are pretty aggressive, theres a reason why rules exist.
 
You would think that the aggression would be gradual, but it is not always. I had a chrysopterus with a sandarcinos (trying to create a pair that would produce leucokranos). They lived together in the same anemone for over a year with no aggression. I came back from work one day the sandarcinos was missing half his face.

The aggression often comes when one or more of the clowns reach breeding age. The "mating dances" don't always match up, and then there is trouble.
 
It's never recommended to mix clownfish species in a single tank. Aggression and stress will determine who is the single most dominant clownfish to claim his territory.
 
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