Help, bigger clown has bitten little clownfish tail (now with photo)

[Soneca-II]

Hi,

 

Today, as i arrived from work and was feeding the clowns ( only fish in tank, despite cleanup crew of 2 hermit's, 2 nassarius and 2 cerith) i notice something weird. On closer inspection the smaller clown had the black tail bitten and at least one byte in one of the side fins (right i believe).

 

They were bought together and have been fine for the last10 day's, The size of them ain't that different even if one is 5% larger ( more or less).

 

Is this regular in clowns?

 

 

:/

 

BR,

Rui

[Clown79]

Clowns are semi aggressive and when similar in size it can become worse as they are determining who is going to be the female(the boss) and who is going to be the male.

 

During that time aggressive behaviour can be minimal to pretty high.

 

My original clown was never aggressive, actually very friendly until I got her a boyfriend. For a week she was great then she became more aggressive. As soon as the smaller one started twitching/shaking she was no longer aggressive with him. She's now mean to me and everything else in the tank. Lol.

 

So yes aggression is normal but I would certainly keep an eye on it. I had one clown that was beating up another badly enough that I returned the aggressor- it wasn't getting better only worse.

[RayWhisperer]

Good advice. It's likely they are just establishing dominance. If they are both already female, or becoming female, they won't stop fighting, though. So, just keep an eye on it and watch for the smaller one to twitch and turn on its side. That's usually a good indication that they are working it all out.

[Soneca-II]

HI, Thanks for the advice.

 

Right now since original post last night ( europe time ) i see the same behavior as the last week, the somewhat bigger one some time goes in direction of the smaller one but without bitting. When i completely turned off the lights on the room i saw that they were together near the bottom.

 

Both of them came at the same time from two different tanks in the shop, each one with more than 10 small fish. I believe they should be right now 5 cm's, the smaller one appears to be 4.5 and thinner.

 

I will keep an eye on it and if something more happens i will get an nursery for guppies to float on top just until i can find a shop that would receive the fish.

 

Edited to include a quick photo. The clown in the top is the one missing the black end of the tail.

 

 

[seabass]

It's a little late for these two, but when picking a clownfish pair (or adding a mate for one), you should pick a juvenile which is notably smaller than the other fish. This way the dominant fish will be apparent to both and there will rarely be abnormal aggression (just typical putting the smaller fish in their place, but nothing that would cause any damage).

 

You might want to inquire if you can trade the undamaged fish for a smaller juvenile. The fact that they are hanging out together is a positive sign. However, the smaller one will have to submit to the larger one, or the aggression will continue.

[Soneca-II]

Hi,

 

Just to close this topic, unfortunately at the time i have lost the bigger clown that in upper photo still didn't shown signs in the tail. Couldn't find medicine in local shops only vitamins . Sincerely i still think if i managed to find it it would be a different outcome than a inflated price vitamins.

 

In the end the clown started to be vertical and in the next day it was dead. The smaller one after a month was almost with the tail complete despite the black line was little messy.

 

it's not very useful information but if someone searches this, there can be hope.