Jump to content
Premium Aquatics Aquarium Supplies

How to stop clownfish from attacking other fish?


lostmindedv

Recommended Posts

Hey guys, I have run into a small problem with my tank and I was wondering if there is anything I could do to fix the problem. About a year ago I started up my biocube 28G and I started off with two clown fish. They lived together happily and one day I wake up to the male (smaller one) struggling to survive. It looked as though the female was biting him, his tail was all nipped up and she was attacking him in his last moments. :( but since then she has been the only fish in the tank. Now just the other day I decided I wanted to get more fish in the tank so I bought 2 firefish gobies. I knew that clownfish tend to be territorial so the day of the new fish I rearranged the aqua scape and introduced all three fished together, but the female clownfish is starting to attack the firefish gobies after a day of being pieceful. Now the firefish gobies are hiding under the live rock and barely come out.

 

Is there anyway to stop the clownfish from attacking the gobies or should I return the gobies?

 

 

Thanks in advanced!

Link to comment
I would get rid of the clown fish and get a new pair of clowns after you have added any other fish first

 

 

I was thinking that's what I might have to do, but I didn't want to jump the gun. I'll see what others say before I decide if Ill do that -_-

Link to comment

You can try floating the clown fish in clear container in the tank - keep it there a week and let it go again. If it attacks the other fish put it back in and try again in 3 - 6 days. Repeat as often as needed.

 

I've seen it work for pairing mean clowns with another - I don't know if it will help you in this situation as it seems your clown has claimed it's territory and wants to destroy anything in it's way.

 

The easiest bet would be to trade it in for a pair of juvi's and be done with it unless you are really attached to that clown.

 

What kind of clown is it?

Link to comment

Yea man, just take it back to the LFS. I had a maroon clown for several months and had the same problems you're having. Not only could I not add fish, I couldn't even add coral without the little bastard trying to knock it off into the sand. I debated with myself for quite some time about whether or not I should just take him back and eventually I just did it. Since I did I've been a happy camper. I got a pair of juvi tank raised ocellaris and they're cool with whatever. Don't let the fish dictate what you do with your tank she'll find a new home.

Edited by zoox
Link to comment

Id have to agree... I added my pygmy hawk before my clown to avoid this.

 

You could always try to train it like a dog. treats for good behavior, flick it in the nose if it is bad... fish training... but really take it back to the lfs and get a new pair.

Link to comment
Yea man, just take it back to the LFS. I had a maroon clown for several months and had the same problems you're having. Not only could I not add fish, I couldn't even add coral without the little bastard trying to knock it off into the sand. I debated with myself for quite some time about whether or not I should just take him back and eventually I just did it. Since I did I've been a happy camper. I got a pair of juvi tank raised ocellaris and they're cool with whatever. Don't let the fish dictate what you do with your tank she'll find a new home.

 

 

I ended up taking him back for store credit and the gobies are already coming out of hiding. I think I'm going to get juvis again after christmas, that seems the way to go. It was hard to let go of my first fish haha.

 

You can try floating the clown fish in clear container in the tank - keep it there a week and let it go again. If it attacks the other fish put it back in and try again in 3 - 6 days. Repeat as often as needed.

 

I've seen it work for pairing mean clowns with another - I don't know if it will help you in this situation as it seems your clown has claimed it's territory and wants to destroy anything in it's way.

 

The easiest bet would be to trade it in for a pair of juvi's and be done with it unless you are really attached to that clown.

 

What kind of clown is it?

 

I ended up returning the clown. Thank you for your idea though, I'll try that another time if a fish becomes agressive. I had a tank raised ocellaris clown fish.

Link to comment
  • 6 years later...

Hi all,

 

I’m having the same problem. I’m on my second pair of clowns in my 10g. I gave the first pair back to my LFS. This time I got a small one and a large female. All was well for a few weeks and the bullying has now started and the male looks stressed and is losing colour as well as his fin. The male submitted to her at the start and she’s twitched back. Any suggestions of what to do?

 

I wouldn’t recommend putting a pair of clowns in a 10g to anyone who’s thinking about it.

 

Thanks in advance 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
52 minutes ago, Chandler1998 said:

Hi all,

 

I’m having the same problem. I’m on my second pair of clowns in my 10g. I gave the first pair back to my LFS. This time I got a small one and a large female. All was well for a few weeks and the bullying has now started and the male looks stressed and is losing colour as well as his fin. The male submitted to her at the start and she’s twitched back. Any suggestions of what to do?

 

I wouldn’t recommend putting a pair of clowns in a 10g to anyone who’s thinking about it.

 

Thanks in advance 

There are a lot of us with clowns in 10g tanks.

 

That's not the issue.

 

In the natural habitat of clowns there is 1 female to numerous males. The female is the aggressor, her job is constantly bullying and herding the males into their anemone, this ensures they stay male because when one changes, she loses her position within the hierarchy.

 

People have issues in large tanks pairing clowns. This is the nature of the beast.

 

My female in my 10g is a real bully, very aggressive,  the male stays away until it's bed time. He's extremely fast, she can't catch him. I call him Flash.

 

The clowns that were in my 15g(now in my 25g) had normal behaviour and paired off immediately with no serious aggression. But the first clown in the tank had to be replaced because she was unbearable and beat up the first male.

 

My experience with a few sets of clowns- it's hit or miss and that's nature.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
  • 1 year later...
Guest WoodstockReefer

I dunno but apparently clowns are alot more aggressive then i was lead to believe. Mine left my goby in a mess after just 4 hours. Nippin its tail for no reason. So came home...and sent the clownfish away. I didnt have an extra tank running and the pet stores were closed by the time i got home...east ass-trailing current down the porcelain express for the clown. 

Link to comment
21 minutes ago, WoodstockReefer said:

I dunno but apparently clowns are alot more aggressive then i was lead to believe. Mine left my goby in a mess after just 4 hours. Nippin its tail for no reason. So came home...and sent the clownfish away. I didnt have an extra tank running and the pet stores were closed by the time i got home...east ass-trailing current down the porcelain express for the clown. 

Wow. If you don't know what you are getting into, I'd suggest finding another hobby. So irresponsible to flush a clown that could live up to a decade given a proper environment.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Afropenguin
On 12/12/2011 at 4:07 PM, lostmindedv said:

Hey guys, I have run into a small problem with my tank and I was wondering if there is anything I could do to fix the problem. About a year ago I started up my biocube 28G and I started off with two clown fish. They lived together happily and one day I wake up to the male (smaller one) struggling to survive. It looked as though the female was biting him, his tail was all nipped up and she was attacking him in his last moments. :( but since then she has been the only fish in the tank. Now just the other day I decided I wanted to get more fish in the tank so I bought 2 firefish gobies. I knew that clownfish tend to be territorial so the day of the new fish I rearranged the aqua scape and introduced all three fished together, but the female clownfish is starting to attack the firefish gobies after a day of being pieceful. Now the firefish gobies are hiding under the live rock and barely come out.

 

Is there anyway to stop the clownfish from attacking the gobies or should I return the gobies?

 

 

Thanks in advanced!

You get a different clown fish. You can try to stick her in a box and ask her to be nice.

Link to comment
23 hours ago, WoodstockReefer said:

I dunno but apparently clowns are alot more aggressive then i was lead to believe. Mine left my goby in a mess after just 4 hours. Nippin its tail for no reason. So came home...and sent the clownfish away. I didnt have an extra tank running and the pet stores were closed by the time i got home...east ass-trailing current down the porcelain express for the clown. 

Wow that is messed up. Just put the damn fish in a Tupperware that has holes until it cam be returned.

 

You want people to support your Kickstarter when you flush fish? Ha.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
On 5/15/2019 at 11:02 PM, WoodstockReefer said:

I dunno but apparently clowns are alot more aggressive then i was lead to believe. Mine left my goby in a mess after just 4 hours. Nippin its tail for no reason. So came home...and sent the clownfish away. I didnt have an extra tank running and the pet stores were closed by the time i got home...east ass-trailing current down the porcelain express for the clown. 

"This animal doesn't get along with my others, so I'm going to kill it." Wow great mentality dude, congrats on being a piece of shit! Especially when you have a product to sell related to the hobby. At least you made it easy for me to never support your product. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Guest WoodstockReefer

People. Lol I still have the clownfish. I fool around sometimes. Ive had that clownfish for about a year yall. Poor humor. I put the goby in a different tank.

Link to comment
2 hours ago, WoodstockReefer said:

People. Lol I still have the clownfish. I fool around sometimes. Ive had that clownfish for about a year yall. Poor humor. I put the goby in a different tank.

Not a bad attempt at damage control but I don't buy it. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment

My recent experience: I started with a clownfish, added a tailspot blenny, then another clownfish. Everyone was chill. Added a bangaii cardinal, that was fine for about 2 weeks. One day found it hiding near the bottom, missing fin, breathing hard, and stopped eating. It died. I didn't think much of it.

 

Then decided to put in a red firefish recently, the larger clownfish (original one, had for about a year at this point) went straight for it, chasing it down. I don't mean pushing it away from territory, it was hunting it down, even looking around rocks where the firefish hid. I had to leave for an hour, came back, and the firefish had a ragged tailfin hiding under a rock.

 

Took the bullying clownfish out and put into it's own tank for 7 days. After the week, I put the clownfish back in, and not even a minute after being back in, went after the firefish with a vengeance. Immediately took the clownfish back out again, and put back into qt.

 

Was going to post it as a free fish on FB, but I pulled the Fluval Evo 5 out of storage and set it up in my son's room and put the clownfish in that. Taught him the daily routine of feeding and topping up with freshwater. Gave him a jug of rodi, and a pill bottle of NLS pellets. Showing water change when the time comes.

 

I'm all for working with fish within reason (1 week qt for me), but I'm not going to let one take over my tank, and not let me add any other fish. Yeah, the fish was "doing what was in it's nature" and might've missed it's 'partner' but it's still my tank, my money, my labor. Firefish looks cooler anyway, swims in the open, active, and doesn't get fat laying in a corner, and I still have a clownfish in there.

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Guest WoodstockReefer

People are too sensitive. It was a joke. I did take the fish back to pet paradise in vb. They gave me enough store credit to get something else that isnt so mean. Chose a tailspot blenny

Link to comment
Guest WoodstockReefer

Kk ok ok. Since we are all soooo sensitive. To think i must be seriously getting on a reef hobby forum and say i flushed a fish. YESSS. People....i did take the fish back to my pet store and got half store credit. Jesus...thank god i didnt say i cooked him up in a fish fry...lol yall would have needed counseling. Chill out yall. Damn. I chose a tailspot blenny instead and couldnt be any happier.  Or if i were the clownfish i would be cause id probably still be sitting in the pet store. Phew...its summertime soon. Maybe all the snowflakes will dry up.

Link to comment
pricewayne

Idk, smells as fishy as the Oval Office. Can’t say I buy the “joke”.

 

Also, there’s nothing wrong with being sensitive and it shouldn’t be used a down trot trait - if anything, it should be respected.

  • Like 2
Link to comment

Still don't buy it. And you are the one acting like a snowflake. 

 

I've had a pair of clowns for a few years in my Fluval V, now in my EVO 13.5. I wouldn't introduce another fish in this tank, its just not big enough. There wouldn't be enough space to allow the two separate species their own territory. I think I remember something  like 30g to the clowns to have better success in mixing. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
  • 1 year later...

So I've been reading everyone's posts. I have a bio cube 32 and I only have two clown fish and a royal gramma. My male clown fish who is really small is the one that keeps kind of harassing the gramma. The gramma will come out but hide in the arch. At first he wouldn't come out at all but to peep out to get food. Would it be a good idea to separate the male (or both) for a while and then introduce them back? Here is a pic of him "hiding" but trying to hang out

A90881F9-37DB-47FF-AEC8-20B8739CA76D.jpeg

Link to comment

Royal grammas naturally claim a cave to lurk in, and stay in or near it. I don't see any caves like that in there. I think he might be hiding in the arch because he can't hide anywhere else, not necessarily because of the clownfish. You need to figure out a way to give him a nice cave to hide in. A big seashell could work. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...