Blenny becoming aggressive

[ILMX20]

Over the past few days I’ve noticed my blenny becoming aggressive with my two ocellaris clowns. I’ve had them all together for over three month and this has never been a problem before. He’s started going really dark whenever they’re near and chasing + nipping at their tail and fins. My male ocellaris has a small chunk from his tail and his dorsal fins are torn. I have no other fish in the tank, and it’s 30 gallons.
I don’t know what I should do. I’m not like a lot of other fish keepers, I have a hard time selling my fish and giving them away. Anyone have any suggestions? Thank you.

 

[Randallh99]

You can try the mirror trick (I.e. putting a mirror next to the tank so the Blenny takes his aggression out on his doppelgänger). I had the exact same situation with my Midas blenny and my two wrasses. I tried the mirror but the blenny never stopped chasing everyone so I had to remove him.

 

[ILMX20]

You can try the mirror trick (I.e. putting a mirror next to the tank so the Blenny takes his aggression out on his doppelgänger). I had the exact same situation with my Midas blenny and my two wrasses. I tried the mirror but the blenny never stopped chasing everyone so I had to remove him.

Thank you. I’ll give it a try

 

[fishguy242]

hi what size are all 3 in inches?

 

[ILMX20]

hi what size are all 3 in inches?

Hi,
My Blenny is about 3 inches ( including tail )
My female clown is around 2.5 inches and my male clown is about 2 inches

 

[homer1475]

The clowns will eventually get sick of it, and kick the snot out of the blenny. The blenny will then learn to leave them be, or it will be it death sentence.

Never seen a blenny harass a clown to death, but have certainly seen a pair of clowns kill an annoying blenny.

 

[Fishbird]

What kind of blenny do you have? I’ve certainly heard of some species being very aggressive.

For what it’s worth, three months isn’t very long. A lot of fish are docile as juveniles and/or when they are new to a tank and don’t feel like they have territories yet. As they settle in and as they grow up they feel more confident and are more likely to be aggressive. I hope your blenny/own issue can be solved with a mirror or rearranging rockwork but I would definitely read up on your particular species of blenny, both on places like LiveAquaria and here to get people’s experiences with it in their tanks.

 

[ILMX20]

What kind of blenny do you have? I’ve certainly heard of some species being very aggressive.

For what it’s worth, three months isn’t very long. A lot of fish are docile as juveniles and/or when they are new to a tank and don’t feel like they have territories yet. As they settle in and as they grow up they feel more confident and are more likely to be aggressive. I hope your blenny/own issue can be solved with a mirror or rearranging rockwork but I would definitely read up on your particular species of blenny, both on places like LiveAquaria and here to get people’s experiences with it in their tanks.

I didn’t even realise that I didn’t mention the type of blenny he is! Sorry! He’s a lawnmower blenny. I’ll definitely give the mirror a try, what would you suggest with the rock work?
Thank you

 

[TriggerFinger]

Changing up the rock work is suggested because it changes the familiar territory. A bully fish may calm down if they’re suddenly in new surroundings...doesn’t feel the need to defend “his space” because you changed up “his space”....

 

[Fishbird]

I would do a search here on lawnmower blenny aggression. Sometimes I find the search bar to not be very helpful but if you go back to google and search something like “lawnmower blenny aggression reef2reef” you should find more relevant threads. I feel like I’ve read about them being quite aggressive but I haven’t kept them myself so I may be remembering incorrectly!

 

[najer]

I have a known fish killer jewel blenny in my sump if anyone wants it!

 

[X-37B]

My blenny was the same until I added my tomini and convict tang. The tomini keeps him subdued and the convict is the tank boss lol.

 

[fishguy242]

i'm late again yep move a rock or two,mirror also,male is pretty sm,no sense in letting him get picked on but agree w all above,endgame ,clowns will win,we want to stop now

 

[Miller535]

Keeping aggressive fish well fed has always been the best thing that worked for me. A full belly seems to calm most bullies down. Adding another fish may disrupt the aggresion too.