Clownfish Memory?

[Ashish Patel]

So I have a pair of Percula clownfish that have been in the tank for 18 months. I added a small hippo tang and the female clown would try and destroy at will. Luckily corals provided hiding spaces for the fish but when the aggression kept getting worst after 3 weeks I decided to remove the clownfish pair and put them in my refugium. Now one month has passed the hippo is enjoying life and I want to know how long should one wait before re-introducing an aggressive fish? Do they really have a 1 or 2 day memory and has this been confirmed by anyone?

 

[davocean]

More than memory of a particular fish, it's probably more about them claiming their own space and territory, so I guess it may depend on tank size and space.

Your hippo may have been picking at algae close to their space.

 

[Ashish Patel]

More than memory of a particular fish, it's probably more about them claiming their own space and territory, so I guess it may depend on tank size and space.

Your hippo may have been picking at algae close to their space.

Thats exactly what it was but a adult female clownfish was the only one showing agression, I was more concerned about my 3 crazy yellow tangs but they just fight with each other and paid no attention to the new hippo. Do you think 1 month time is enough for the fish to forget about its territory?

 

[davocean]

Clown fish will always claim a certain space, whether it happens to be the same spot or not I'm not sure.

My clownfish do remember a feeder dumps about 3pm every day, and they only leave their nem to swim to that spot across the tank about 15-30 minutes before it dumps, but that is the only sign of memory I've seen which could be called daily.

At some point your clowns will spawn, and all of those tangs will try for eggs, so the clowns will have to step up at some point, but really I would fear them getting tail spiked more than a tang getting a bite from them.

 

[mattzang]

maybe play Finding Nemo on repeat near the tank when you reintroduce?

 

[Ashish Patel]

haha, I have to move around some corals and mount a few more so i'll just re-introduce them and see what happens, hopefully a long timeout serves them well.

 

[Ariel V Rosa]

If you have one of those boxes that you can hang in the tank and let them see everyone else for a few hours it will go over much better. With my clowns I cant throw anything that moves into the tank without letting them observe it for a few hours.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Nothing has worked I've tried mirrors and playing clownfish video on my tablet. I think the female clown has just reached sexual maturity and since I have not added any new fish after 3nd batch (almost 18 months back), its extra aggressive. I think it should be fine now as they will have to claim their territory and if the female goes nutts again i'll just find the pair a new home.

 

[Jesterrace]

Yup, clowns of any kind can get super territorial once well established and if it has been a long time since any fish has been added (which at 18 months it has) they will view any new addition as competition/threat. A long term time out with some rockwork rearrangement will give you your best chance at success.

 

[Ariel V Rosa]

Yup, clowns of any kind can get super territorial once well established and if it has been a long time since any fish has been added (which at 18 months it has) they will view any new addition as competition/threat. A long term time out with some rockwork rearrangement will give you your best chance at success.

I agree with this, timeouts are necessary when they are established. I use an acrylic hang in tank box, I pull them out into the box add they new life and let them sit there for about a day, and I only release them lights during lights out. If not, they will kill anything I add to the tank...... even rocks are seen as enemies. I once added a few hermits for kicks...... I watched in horror as they picked each one up, piled them in a corner and took turns executing each one.

 

[Ashish Patel]

I decided to put the clownfish back in the tank. To a lesser degree the female clown is still attacking the hippo. Its been about 2 months the clownfish have been in the fuge. This proves they have a good long term memory. I believe the hippo recognized the clownfish soon as I added them too as they where first to size each other up.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Clownfish is back at it I wish the hippo fights back but he's a wuss

 

[Jesterrace]

Remove the Hippo and Replace it with a 6 line or 8 line Wrasse. That clown will wish it had never been born. On a more serious note, I had a snowflake occ that was a total butthead and tried to take over my tank, then it made the mistake of trying to push my Melanurus Wrasse around once too often and the wrasse gave that little brat what for, for about a day and a half. After that the occasional reminder nip was all it needed to put it in place.