Just upgraded my 40 gallon breeder to a 75 gallon. Hawkfish came over from the 40G and the clown came over from a 10G (daughters tank). I'm watching the clownfish chase the hawkfish pretty relentlessly. Any suggestions? How long should I wait before stepping in?
Clownfish picking on hawkfish
- Thread starter AtisE
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What type of clownfish and hawkfish do you have? If you feed does the hawkfish eat?
Generally hawkfish are tough and unless it is really getting shredded by the clownfish then I would be inclined to turn the lights out and give them a day to settle. This chasing can last a week or two until the clown loses interest and as long as no physical damage is done its worth letting them sort it out.
This is all assuming that you have a occelaris/percula as other clowns can be more aggressive. I used to have a scarlet hawkfish that was chased by my clowns and it settled in quickly and began playing with the clown female.
Generally hawkfish are tough and unless it is really getting shredded by the clownfish then I would be inclined to turn the lights out and give them a day to settle. This chasing can last a week or two until the clown loses interest and as long as no physical damage is done its worth letting them sort it out.
This is all assuming that you have a occelaris/percula as other clowns can be more aggressive. I used to have a scarlet hawkfish that was chased by my clowns and it settled in quickly and began playing with the clown female.
The clown is an ocellaris and the hawkfish is the flame. It's been almost two weeks and things are much better. While they're not playing together, they're both alive and look healthy. The Hawkfish isn't as "front and center" as I'd like, but that's ok. I taped a mirror to the side of the tank for a few days. The clown fought it over and over. Now everyone's a bit more chilled.
As my flame hawk matured it began to wind up my female clown. It would deliberately perch on the sand next to where the female hung out, wait to be seen off by her and then do a lap of the tank and sit on the sand at the other side of her territory until she got annoyed again. This continued for up to an hour at a time and you could see the hawk was doing it on purpose.
