Clownfish wants to kill me!

Nano101 · Oct 31, 2017

My tank-raised Ocellaris Clown attacks my hand whenever it goes in the tank for maintenance! It hurts! I’ve had this clown for just over two months and it was not aggressive towards my hand to start. The clown gets along with his tank mates just fine. What the heck is going on here? I’ve had clowns nip at me in former tanks if I get to close to their hosting anemone, but this is different.

Also, he seems to want to host my large frogspawn colony. I’ve never heard of such a thing. He hangs out by it all the time.

Be102 · Oct 31, 2017

I am not a clown professional however I feel he is just getting protective / defensive of his new home.

Nano101 · Oct 31, 2017

He also doesn’t eat as well as other clowns have in the past. He was on pellet food at my LFS, so I do that plus rods food for the rest of the tank. This is one odd clown.

Nano101 · Oct 31, 2017

Be102 said:
I am not a clown professional however I feel he is just getting protective / defensive of his new home.

I’ve just have never heard of this. Maybe I should wear gloves

Amps Reef Life · Oct 31, 2017

Sounds like he's just being aggressive of his home. Some clowns are this way I use to have a pair that did the same thing. What I ended up doing was wearing a glove and after that, they never went after my hand. Hosting a frogspawn is pretty common I use to have a pair that hosted my big ducan colony.

S-t-r-e-t-c-h · Oct 31, 2017

I've had clowns try hosting in euphyllia, leather corals, plate corals, etc. It's really unpredictable, but nice when it happens.

Some reading materials re: biting clown fish

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/h...ause-of-a-clown-fish-how-embarrassing.322679/

Be102 · Oct 31, 2017

Nano101 said:
I’ve just have never heard of this. Maybe I should wear gloves

I use a large nearly shoulder length glove for all my fish tank needs.

Nano101 · Oct 31, 2017

Be102 said:
I use a large nearly shoulder length glove for all my fish tank needs.

I have one but haven’t used them since my large tank days. Time to take them out again!

Nano101 · Oct 31, 2017

S-t-r-e-t-c-h said:
I've had clowns try hosting in euphyllia, leather corals, plate corals, etc. It's really unpredictable, but nice when it happens.

Some reading materials re: biting clown fish

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/h...ause-of-a-clown-fish-how-embarrassing.322679/

At least I wear glasses, lol. Thanks for the info. Weird stuff. The clown has a great personality in the tank when I’m not messing with it. Active swimmer, explores, ignores his tank mates. Just my dang hand he hates. Gloves are going on next time.

2Wheelsonly · Oct 31, 2017

i'm the one who got bit in the eye in that linked thread...

My clown fish will attack my hand relentlessly...he has been doing it a lot but never did it in the first two years I had him. I actually have to wear gloves when I work around his territory; he is brutal...literally will attack and hang on tearing at my skin like a pitbull shaking his head back and forth and it actually hurts. It's enough to cause bleeding...

The thing that's changed is that i'm feeding more because I am struggling to keep nutrients in my tank. They are fed frozen once and pellets by auto feeder twice per day for a total of 3 feedings per day.

leahfiish · Oct 31, 2017

Mine don't attack me, yet, but they've almost killed my anemone, I've seperated it for now and I hope it recovers.

Wbrian · Oct 31, 2017

Both of my clowns attack my hand and arm when I go in the tank. Little pric*s. They have even jumped out of the tank to try and bite me when I'm doing extensive tank work. 3 carpet surfs and you think they'd learn...

liveround69 · Oct 31, 2017

My breeding pair of Goldstripe Maroons always take turns biting my hand when i clean the tank. My knuckles end up bleeding like crazy of course. The little jerks...lol

Slarti · Oct 31, 2017

Yip mine attacks as well, not painful at this point in time but scared the living daylights out of me in the beginning. I tended to shoo her away in the beginning and that just made the attacks more vicious. These days I just let her go for a few nibbles and she usually stops after a while.

Crashjack · Nov 1, 2017

Just be glad they aren't tomatoes.

Reefer1464 · Nov 1, 2017

Mine has now twice actually jumped out to get me. If my face is close enough to the surface he comes for me.

DHill6 · Nov 1, 2017

I had a pair of tiny ocellaris , when grown were relentless in the nipping battle. The larger one attached at every chance, then the smaller one followed. They began to attack the SPS knocking the off the rock. I would put them back they would attack the coral again. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't watched them. They were given away.

stevieduk · Nov 1, 2017

Nano101 said:
My tank-raised Ocellaris Clown attacks my hand whenever it goes in the tank for maintenance! It hurts! I’ve had this clown for just over two months and it was not aggressive towards my hand to start. The clown gets along with his tank mates just fine. What the heck is going on here? I’ve had clowns nip at me in former tanks if I get to close to their hosting anemone, but this is different.

Also, he seems to want to host my large frogspawn colony. I’ve never heard of such a thing. He hangs out by it all the time.

ha ha I had one like that. use to make me bleed until on day i realized it was frightened of the net i use to catch fish so now i put that in the tank first and keep it between the fish and my hand