Clown Fish

[Dcole12]

Hi Everyone,

I have two black Ocellaris clowns. They have been together for 4 or five months. They are very different in size, but all of a sudden the big one has started to pick on the little clown all of a sudden after months of being fine. I do have the female clown separated. The make is roaming the tank free currently. Should I swith this and let the male in the safe spot? And how long should I let this go on? I did notice a little damage to some of the fins of the smaller one ( I want to let him heal up a little bit). Could I have some advise on how long I should keep them seperated and which one should I put in the container?

Thanks for the help!

 

[Peace River]

This can be a challenging question and you may hear a range of solutions. Aggression and dominance is wired into clownfish and this is parts of the mystery and magic of clownfish. From my experience there are a couple of times when you are more likely to see aggression between clowns - when they are first introduced to each other and then some time later when they are starting to think about breeding (this doesn't necessarily mean that breeding is imminent). In either case, if my intent is to get an established pair (hopefully a breeding pair) then I will add caves/hiding places to provide a potentially safe place in case of aggression. When aggression occurs I may add additional hiding places, rearrange the aquascape, and observe. I am particularly looking for body damage, bacterial infections, or anything else that may be life threatening. Although this may be controversial, I typically don't separate the fish due to fin damage because sometime when you separate the fish and then reintroduce them it can restart the dominance process. At this point, since the fish are separated I would wait a few days for the fins to heal and then rearrange the aquascape/provide additional hiding places before they are reintroduced. Of course, clownfish are both weird and amazing so there isn't always a one-size-fits-all plan.

 

[vetteguy53081]

female is always the larger of the two and the aggressor. I would place the big one in sump or container