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Help with Clowns


pisanoal

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Hello all,

This is my first post to this forum and i just recently started up a biocube 14 (going about a month). I have two clowns in (only fish), and a small clean up crew of some snails and a couple hermits and one small anthelia colony. My question is about my clowns. I know this topic has been discussed a lot but not quite to the point that i had concerns about. I have one black and one orange clown, i got them from my LFS (supposed to be the same type, but cant remember if he said true or false percs) and they were in the same tank. They are approximately the same size which is mistake #1 (orange is slightly bigger), but up until a couple days ago they were getting along great. They have been in the tank for 2 weeks or so and are both eating great, in fact voraciously. They used to hang out together all the time, swimming all over the tank, hanging out in different caves and such. Then a couple days ago, the orange (which is slightly larger), started being aggressive. Before now, both would do the whole shaking in front of each other thing sort of back and forth. Now, only the black one does it. The orange one will swim all over the tank until it finds the black one and then chase him around nipping at him. He finds a new spot to hide, and the orange one will leave him alone for a little while. Then it will swim frantically looking for him again, and go after him. Sometimes it will just go right up to him and "stare the black one down" so to speak. During feeding, it will keep the black one pinned in a corner while it eats, constantly going back to make sure the black one is still there. There doesn't seem to be any damage except for maybe some around the mouth of the orange one where it looks a little pale. I'm hoping this is normal behavior, which from what I've read, it sounds like it is. I was just hoping for some feed back. Here are a picture of the clowns and the setup. And just for the record, all the water parameters are in check, nitrates are slightly elevated (~10 ppm). Thanks in advance!

 

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Yep! Normal behavior, the orange one is just showing the black one who's boss, as long as the black one is still getting food while you feed them, it should be fine.

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That's what mine did as well and be prepared it can last a long time. I have wondered if mine may not be a good match because the larger female still chases the smaller male and it has been about 4 months. The male hides often and does not stay close to the female. Even when he does his 'shimmy' to her she sometimes chases him depending on her mood lol Also watch to make sure no fins are torn during this time.

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Ok. Thanks for the replies! I understood it to be normal behavior from what I've read, but I just wanted to be sure since I hadn't seen where others were literally hunting the other one down just to pick on them.

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Yes that is def. normal for the female to do this like I said it depends on the females mood many times lol Mine continues to do this and it has been 4 months I worried at first as well when mine did this.

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