Aggressive clownfish to fellow clown. Add another fish??

[ConcernedClowns]

Hi all, 

 

I have two clownfish in my 6 week old tank.  They had been together at my LFS and brought them both home. Apparently, they had been together for about 2 months before I bought them. They seem to have paired as one is nearly double the size as the other and the small one does the typical submissive dance all the time. 
 

The female started to get quite aggressive about three weeks ago. She is always chasing the boy and now he is starting to appear very stressed. Always sitting on the ground between the glass and a rock to hide. He swims around very rarely without being bothered... but she usually starts to chase him within 4 mins of swimming around... so he spends the majority of his day sitting in his hiding place. He comes up to eat and doesn’t have any missing fins. 
 

I’ve added more rock to try to break lines of sight but that doesn’t appear to have helped much. It helped for about a day but now she’s back to chasing him until he sits in sand majority of day. 
 

As a side note, tank has cycled and all parameters are good. Temp is 80. pH is 7.9. Ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 5ppm. Salinity is 1.026. 
 

thinking about adding MORE fish as a distraction. Has this been known to work with good results? I have a 10 gallon Waterbox. If this is a good idea, how many fish can I have in a 10 gallon tank if 2 are clownfish? Any suggestions on some peacekeepers? 
 

TIA! 

[Tired]

2 clownfish in a 10gal is about fully stocked. I don't think another fish would help. More fish can help when the issue is cross-species aggression, but clownfish are pretty focused on their own pair dynamics. 

 

You could try putting one of them in a hang-on breeder box (a mesh or slotted plastic box that hangs inside the tank) for a bit, to make the female leave him alone. 

[Afropenguin]

Downside of the small tank is that nothing you put in there will be enough to diffuse the aggression. Just make sure that both clownfish get food and they should figure themselves out. Fun part about clownfish is they will do this for a few months and eventually they will stop (it took about a year for my fish to stop fighting)

[ConcernedClowns]

I have started to feed more regularly- feeding daily now as I had been feeding every other day while tank was cycling. 

 

I just feel so sad for the small one. Not a nice life sitting in the sand all day and getting chased if he tries to come out. I’ll give it more time I guess. 

[debbeach13]

Is there any caves or places where the little guy can hide? A small barnacle cluster or medium shell would work. Even a small cup, jar or pc. of pvc placed on it's side and put a couple rocks around it. I would try the breeding box. I had luck with that by putting the larger more aggressive fish in jail and let the little one roam the tank. They might work it out on their own but I feel bad for the little one.

[ConcernedClowns]

Yes, lots of places that he can hide now that we added more rocks. He’s just always hiding 😔