Aggresive clown fish

Chris Van Daele · Feb 27, 2018

Hello,

My 75 gal tank has been up and running for a couple months now. In it I have 2 clowns, spotted puffer, coral beauty, and a foxface. For the first while everything was great but in the last couple weeks one of my clowns has gotten very aggressive. Initially there was an issue with him and the foxface but now he is aggressively going after my puffer fish almost constantly. The puffer does not seem to get aggressive back and had ended up with a few bite marks on him and a piece taken out of his tail fin.....

I am feeding 2-3 times daily with a mixture of nori, flakes, and different types of frozen cube food. All water parameters are where they should be.

Any ideas what has triggered this?? I do not have an aneneme, could this be the issue?

Crabs McJones · Feb 27, 2018

Chris Van Daele said:
Hello,

My 75 gal tank has been up and running for a couple months now. In it I have 2 clowns, spotted puffer, coral beauty, and a foxface. For the first while everything was great but in the last couple weeks one of my clowns has gotten very aggressive. Initially there was an issue with him and the foxface but now he is aggressively going after my puffer fish almost constantly. The puffer does not seem to get aggressive back and had ended up with a few bite marks on him and a piece taken out of his tail fin.....

I am feeding 2-3 times daily with a mixture of nori, flakes, and different types of frozen cube food. All water parameters are where they should be.

Any ideas what has triggered this?? I do not have an aneneme, could this be the issue?

Most times, if the clowns have paired up, they pick a spot in the tank as "theirs" and will defend it against anything that comes into "their spot" whether there is an anemone or not. Mine have chosen my duncan colony and the spot behind it where they lay eggs about once every two weeks or so. If my sixline or scooter blenny come near it they immediately chase them away.

Chris Van Daele · Feb 27, 2018

That actually makes sense. What do the eggs look like and how long do they take to hatch? I've noticed it's only one of the clowns that's acting aggressively....it's the smaller one which I believe is the male. Does that sound correct?

Crabs McJones · Feb 27, 2018

Chris Van Daele said:
That actually makes sense. What do the eggs look like and how long do they take to hatch? I've noticed it's only one of the clowns that's acting aggressively....it's the smaller one which I believe is the male. Does that sound correct?

Correct, smaller one is the male. The eggs when they're first hatched are little orange bumps. As they get closer to hatching they darken. It takes about a week to 12 days for them to hatch.

Chris Van Daele · Feb 27, 2018

I'll have to have a look for the eggs tonight but something tells me the puffer went after them and that's how he got some of his bit marks. Is it typically the male that is protective over the eggs or both male and female?

Crabs McJones · Feb 27, 2018

Chris Van Daele said:
I'll have to have a look for the eggs tonight but something tells me the puffer went after them and that's how he got some of his bit marks. Is it typically the male that is protective over the eggs or both male and female?

Usually its the female thats aggressive over the eggs. Mine whenever i put my hands in the tank she swims up and takes a bite out of me.

Jesterrace · Feb 27, 2018

Yup, could definitely be a case of a mother defending it's young. Many an animal has died from this alone. That said, all clowns are semi-aggressive/territorial to some extent. It really bothers me that websites list Occ clowns as peaceful when they are actually semi-aggressive. My snowflake Occ sure was an aggressive little butthead to it's tankmates in my 36 gallon. Although he definitely regretted bullying my melanurus wrasse. It took it for a bit and then decided to put the little punk in it's place and spent a day beating the living crap out of the clownfish (even grabbed it by it's tail and ragdolled it). The next day the wrasse backed off other than the occasional reminder nip. The clown got the message.

Finhead · Feb 27, 2018

Clownfish are Damsels, they can be very nasty for no reason and aggressive like any other damsel. I gave mine away when I transfered to a new tank, couldn't handle the female biting my hand everytime I had it in the tank. Never have another clownfish again. lol

Chris Van Daele · Feb 28, 2018

This is interesting, I had no idea clowns had such aggressive tendencies.....and I thought I did my reading!

LadyMac · Feb 28, 2018

Haha I may be in trouble. I feed by hand. I’m waiting for mine to try and take a chunk out. That being said I raise wild betta, and when I feed them/ do tank stuff I end up with quite a few marks in my hands and arms from them so it’s nothing too new for me.

Chris Van Daele · Mar 21, 2018

The aggression stopped for a while but now it has started again and worse than ever. What I don't understand is the clowns are only beating up on my puffer, they leave all the other fish alone. Poor puffer is getting stressed and is regularly getting bitten......is there any way to stop this?

Jesterrace · Mar 21, 2018

The only way to stop it is to trap and remove the clowns. You could remove the clowns and rearrange the rock work and try it again but my guess is that it's some kind of territorial thing where they view the puffer as a threat for some reason. You definitely don't want a stressed puffer as that can kill your tank (depending on the species, of course).

Chris Van Daele · Mar 27, 2018

I cant figure these clowns out. They were matched for months and now the female is attacking the male to the point of almost killing him. I managed to separate them in time. Out of all the fish I have the clowns are the only fish that have caused me gried.....it seems to be always something with them

DeniseAndy · Mar 27, 2018

I did not see you mention the type of clowns? Maroons are known psychopaths with antisocial tendencies. Most clowns are borderline schizophrenic and borderline personality disorder. I am not making fun of those diseases, I really think clowns have these issues.

*please do not take offense as I have family members with some of these issues