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Cultivated Reef

Fish bite?


Cop

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Hi,

I have 2 maroon clownfish and they both have thankfully been doing well. But today I was blown away by a supposed bite mark on the males fin. He generally stays away from the bigger female. But I have been noticing the female pushing him around. But I can't really tell if that's a bite from the female or he previously hurt his fin. He's swimming fine with it. If I remember correctly yesterday he did not have that (Sorry for bad photo. It's his left fin, in person you can clearly see a U shape cut taken out of his fin) 

IMG_1571.JPG

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Maroon females are especially hard on the male while pairing up.  In fact, I know many breeders who have had males killed during the process.  You need to put something in there that only he can fit in so he can get away from her and rest for awhile.

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Ok I've actually made a little space between the rocks for him. he goes in there when the female goes after him. The female does a sort of nudging and biting movement. I'm concerned because he will only do the "paring shimmy" when it gets bad. And is it normal for clowns to sleep on there belly and keep there fins moving on the sand bed? They do that occasionally but prefer swimming in the corner of their the tank more.

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Maroons and Tomatoes are vicious. Unfortunately that's what they do. Some hiding places are a good idea however the male for some stupid reason will be draw to that big bitch.They either pair or they don't. I had maroons years ago and was never able to get the female to pair with a male.......she killed 4 and I gave up. Currently I have Tomato clowns. This female straight murderized the first juvenile male introduced within hours. Second male made it a few weeks but lived its life hiding in the corner of the tank......he finally had it and committed suicide.....The third fought for a few days and boom weird fish love happened and now they are inseparable :wub: That was 10 years ago and they are still chillin together. 

 

Im no marine biologist but in my experience pairing tank raised clowns seem to have better success than trying to pair wild caught. All my maroons were wild caught and would fight to the death. My female Tomato was wild caught and the first 2 she killed or drove to suicide were also wild caught the one that made it was tank raised.   

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I just watched a documentary on clownfish.

 

It was really interesting. 

The Big Pacific. 

 

 

The female(queen) of the male colony constantly harasses the males in order to keep them males.


 

So the female being aggressive with the male is normal behaviour but I would definitely monitor for serious injury.

 

That breed is known to be very vicious.

 

What size tank are they in?

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If they are both captive bred, hiding in the corner of a new tank is "normal" behavior for them.  Understand, they are basically bred in a lab puppy mill style.  They've never seen rock, sand, corals, or anything in a reef setting.  I raised all of my clowns in a "starter reef" setting.  I had corals and and anemone that they all took to.  When I took them to the shops for sale, they acted much more like wild clowns and less like captive bred.  Just keep doing what you're doing, if he does the submission dance it's a good start and as long as he has a place to retreat to, you should be good.  Just keep an eye on them.

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17 hours ago, Cop said:

 

I've added a few corals that they both like. In the tank there is a toadstool which the female likes and zoanthidswhich the male likes. they kinda switch every once and awhile between corals . But I haven't seen Much fighting thankfully. Fingers crossed ? 

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Quick update, I've noticed that as soon as the lights go out the female becomes very aggressive. The female made the male do the submissive dance like 5 times. Now the male is sticking to the top right corner of the tank.

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You are only a few days in, just skimming the honeymoon phase :)  Give it some time.  I don't have maroons but am planning a new tank and thought about getting them.  I have two perculas now.

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3 hours ago, Cop said:

Quick update, I've noticed that as soon as the lights go out the female becomes very aggressive. The female made the male do the submissive dance like 5 times. Now the male is sticking to the top right corner of the tank.

He's debating jumping. :lol:

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