Clown Breaking Skin

[ReefJCB]

Over the last month or 2 both of my clowns have become incredibly aggressive, to the point of "chasing" me to the other end of my 5ft tank. It has gotten to the point of breaking the skin. The bites don't hurt too bad, but they startle me every time and I've started jerking and breaking corals.

I've read countless stories of clowns becoming complete jerks, so I'm not expecting anything to change with the clowns themselves. Does anyone have any tips or tricks for dealing with their monster clowns while working in the tank? I've thought about shoulder length gloves (which I should probably be using anyways) or maybe catching the clowns and putting them in a bucket or the sump while I'm doing extended maintenance.

 

[Mrs. Herbert]

From what I have read, lightning maroons and tomato clowns are the worst at being aggressive. I do not have any tricks as the two I have are normal clowns and they are pretty chill with me. My female will get a little attitude with my Foxface and that's about it. Putting the two you have in a bucket or the sump does sounds like a good alternative.

 

[MTBake]

I had a maroon that would draw blood. Ended up trading her to the lfs. She would literally move football sized rocks out of place. Along with picking up and burying coral frags that weren't glued down. She also fanned 60lbs of sand into one corner of a 75 gallon tank.

Not sure you can really do much about it. The gloves would give you some protection, but they'll still give chase.

 

[SeaJay]

I have a black clown that has started chasing and biting me. Doesn’t seem to hate any of the other inhabitants. Just me...

 

[fishguy242]

try going in aggresivly toward them immedeatly when entering tank try to make them her respect you ,like go after and try to grab ,scare tactic works sometimes

 

[W1ngz]

Mine never bothered with me at all - so long as I was wearing full arm gloves. If not, my female lets me have it. It's what they do, and I bet you'll find dozens of people with the same experience. They only started doing this once they were about 2 years old.

Even if I'd chase her around the tank and whack her with the tongs, she'd still come after me.

 

[Birdbrains?]

They are so great at timing scare effects
Well my tactic was that I stick my hands into their territory every other day but I have to move slowly or the female becomes agitated. Perhaps you can put a container over them and their favourite spot while you go tank diving nearby.

 

[ReefJCB]

I’ve tried doing the scare tactic to “assert dominance” , if anything it makes them more ticked off haha.

I just can’t believe how much of a terror they’ve both turned into. The male is bad but the female is out for blood.

 

[SDK]

These gloves are guaranteed to bite proof your hands from even the largest clowns. They are also helpful to avoid your hands introducing contaminants into your tank.

 

[Birdbrains?]

Aw, darn...
It seems that they have deducted that your presence in the tank is that of an invader or challenge to their territory. Clowns are like home guards, they don't like when something changes their flow; because knowing the local flow better than "the invader" is part of the survival strategies of clownfishes. When moving near them in the tank, always try to signal that you will wait for them to swim away, rather than be bossy around them, which makes them uncertain in their swim patterns and agitated.

I think that trying to remove them when you clean, might work once or twice but then they will be on to your tricks and catching them will become impossible.

I believe you will most easily control their attacks on you, if you get some kind of clear box, I guess that kinda thing is usually called a strawberry tray in the hobby

But if you could actually get something to contain the clowns inside their favourite turf while you work with your tank, so they don't keep actually messing with you?

Either way, one trick I used to make the female clown more relaxed with my hands in the tank, was to give shrimp to the male when the female started hiding (which means it is making ready to pounce if needed).

That way, the female became jealous that the smaller fish got shrimp and eventually it lured the female fish into being more interested in what food my hands might drop, than the very disturbing feeling of a hand in the tank disrupting everything