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Time for a divorce


Acetabularia-less

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Acetabularia-less

After more than a year together, after counseling and trial separations, the time has come to admit defeat. My clownfish need a divorce. Irreconcilable differences. 

 

They are black and white occys that I got at the same time as juveniles from my LFS in August of 2015. There was a size difference from the beginning and at first things seemed to be going fine. But as they've matured, they became more aggressive to each other. It's hard to say who's "fault" it is. The smaller one (he) doesn't submit to the larger one's satisfaction, so she bites him.... a lot.  She also does the submission twitch about 10 times more frequently than he does, which is confusing for me and, I assume, him. He will also lunge at her from time to time. He is much smaller so he can't hurt her, but it probably doesn't help her opinion of him when he does that. 

 

Whenever they are together, my male ends up with terribly torn fins. I'll separate them with a sheet of light diffuser I call the bully blocker (c) (TM). The grids are small enough for him to pass through, but she is too large. Fortunately my rock work has a gap so I can divide the tank in half easily. I'll give him some time to recover, but when I re-introduce them, the same thing happens. Sometimes they will swim together nicely, but he always ends up with torn fins. This is an abusive relationship. 

 

I've moved the female into the quarantine tank and will re-home her. Anybody want a free black and white clownfish in south east Michigan?

 

Tank: IM Nuvo 30L

Only other inhabitants: hybrid cleaner goby, some snails and corals.

newlyweds.jpg

IMG_2152.JPG

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1 hour ago, Acetabularia-less said:

After more than a year together, after counseling and trial separations, the time has come to admit defeat. My clownfish need a divorce. Irreconcilable differences. 

 

They are black and white occys that I got at the same time as juveniles from my LFS in August of 2015. There was a size difference from the beginning and at first things seemed to be going fine. But as they've matured, they became more aggressive to each other. It's hard to say who's "fault" it is. The smaller one (he) doesn't submit to the larger one's satisfaction, so she bites him.... a lot.  She also does the submission twitch about 10 times more frequently than he does, which is confusing for me and, I assume, him. He will also lunge at her from time to time. He is much smaller so he can't hurt her, but it probably doesn't help her opinion of him when he does that. 

 

Whenever they are together, my male ends up with terribly torn fins. I'll separate them with a sheet of light diffuser I call the bully blocker (c) (TM). The grids are small enough for him to pass through, but she is too large. Fortunately my rock work has a gap so I can divide the tank in half easily. I'll give him some time to recover, but when I re-introduce them, the same thing happens. Sometimes they will swim together nicely, but he always ends up with torn fins. This is an abusive relationship. 

 

I've moved the female into the quarantine tank and will re-home her. Anybody want a free black and white clownfish in south east Michigan?

 

Tank: IM Nuvo 30L

Only other inhabitants: hybrid cleaner goby, some snails and corals.

newlyweds.jpg

IMG_2152.JPG

 

 

Aw hell...... I thought we were in for some juicy gossip. ?

 

Seriously though,  poor dude.  

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Sorry.   Christine also had to be divorced from Phantom.  Phantom fell in love with Raoul who moved in after Christine left.

 

We all know Raoul was unnaturally obssessed with Phantom anyways.  (All phantom of the opera puns if thay goes over your head)

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21 minutes ago, lkoechle said:

Sorry.   Christine also had to be divorced from Phantom.  Phantom fell in love with Raoul who moved in after Christine left.

 

We all know Raoul was unnaturally obssessed with Phantom anyways.  (All phantom of the opera puns if thay goes over your head)

I always wondered about Raoul. 

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Acetabularia-less
1 hour ago, lkoechle said:

 (All phantom of the opera puns if thay goes over your head)

 

They went over my head. Maybe the clownfish are fine, maybe I'm the one who has gone crazy.

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17 minutes ago, Acetabularia-less said:

 

They went over my head. Maybe the clownfish are fine, maybe I'm the one who has gone crazy.

No no. christine phantom and raoul were all my clownfish. lol I named them after the musical lol

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5 hours ago, Acetabularia-less said:

After more than a year together, after counseling and trial separations, the time has come to admit defeat. My clownfish need a divorce. Irreconcilable differences. 

 

They are black and white occys that I got at the same time as juveniles from my LFS in August of 2015. There was a size difference from the beginning and at first things seemed to be going fine. But as they've matured, they became more aggressive to each other. It's hard to say who's "fault" it is. The smaller one (he) doesn't submit to the larger one's satisfaction, so she bites him.... a lot.  She also does the submission twitch about 10 times more frequently than he does, which is confusing for me and, I assume, him. He will also lunge at her from time to time. He is much smaller so he can't hurt her, but it probably doesn't help her opinion of him when he does that. 

 

Whenever they are together, my male ends up with terribly torn fins. I'll separate them with a sheet of light diffuser I call the bully blocker (c) (TM). The grids are small enough for him to pass through, but she is too large. Fortunately my rock work has a gap so I can divide the tank in half easily. I'll give him some time to recover, but when I re-introduce them, the same thing happens. Sometimes they will swim together nicely, but he always ends up with torn fins. This is an abusive relationship. 

 

I've moved the female into the quarantine tank and will re-home her. Anybody want a free black and white clownfish in south east Michigan?

 

Tank: IM Nuvo 30L

Only other inhabitants: hybrid cleaner goby, some snails and corals.

newlyweds.jpg

IMG_2152.JPG

Change thread title. I really thought wife had sprayed Lysol in the tank or something    when I read it. Whatever though, it'll generate a lot of views! 

Sucks about the fish. Just flush the abuser, DV is unacceptable. 

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When replacing your clown, get one significantly smaller than the one in your dt. I made sure that when introducing a mate i chose one half the size of the existing clown.

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Acetabularia-less

The separation is a success. Bully fish is in the quarantine tank until I can find a new home for her and the little guy is having a grand time swimming around in the main tank. His fins are healing nicely too. 

 

On 4/10/2017 at 1:55 AM, Clown79 said:

When replacing your clown, get one significantly smaller than the one in your dt. I made sure that when introducing a mate i chose one half the size of the existing clown.

 

I'm not sure I will get another clown at this point. I do admit to liking the look of the naked clowns (shocking!), so maybe if I ever work up the nerve to try again, I'll go that route after my current clown grows a bit larger.

 

I do have a short list of fish I have been considering adding for many months (one of the following, all captive bred) assessor, yellow watchman goby, or elongate pseudochromis. Maybe I'll pull the trigger on one of those. :) 

 

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Sounds like a nice list. I have an elongated pseudochromis. A bit of a bully but not as much of an a hole as some of the others. 

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Acetabularia-less
21 hours ago, jambon said:

Sounds like a nice list. I have an elongated pseudochromis. A bit of a bully but not as much of an a hole as some of the others. 

I hear they are the most laid-back of the pseudochromis...es, pseudochromi... dottybacks. But I'm done with dealing with bullies *narrows eyes at quarantine tank*. So maybe the assessor is the better choice. Can't we all just get along?

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Yes I believe we can. Hey another nice dottyback is the springerii. Black with some nice electric blue and IMO more laidback then the elongated. I never had much luck with the royal gramma family and the assessor is not very available up here in Canada. :unsure: Probably would be all over that one if I ran into one.

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Acetabularia-less

The assessors seem to be a much less common fish in general. I've been stalking Live Aquaria when I remember (am not good at stalking), but they are rarely available.  I'm almost afraid to get one at this point since I've built them up in my mind as the greatest fish ever (they swim upside-down sometimes!). It's almost guaranteed disappointment... 

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Just a personal preference I guess. I have done some diving in the Caribbean and Royal grammas are quite common mostly under overhangs and swimming upside down. I think you would need a large enough tank to create a ledge... 

   I recently saw a picture of a similar fish in this family from cuba. It was mostly yellow and orange. It may have been on reef builders? IMO nicer than the assessor. 

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