george9
Active Member
Hello everyone!
I introduced two juvenile (no bigger than 1.25”) clowns into my tank on Dec 29. One is an orange storm and the other is a Davinci clown. The orange storm is just slightly bigger than the Davinci and is showing much more aggression. They do swim together and sleep together, but every once in a while the orange storm will nip at the davinci. Sometimes he will submit and twitch, and other times he just swims away from her and she leaves him alone. I don’t see any jaw-locking or severe thrashing, just nipping. I say “her” because I assume she will become the female between the two since she is slightly larger and showing much more aggression.
None of this behavior has prevented the submissive Davinci to show signs of stress. He’s still out in the front of the tank pacing the glass and exploring the tank and will still sleep with the Orange storm. But he is experiencing some fin damage as a result of the behavior. It started on his pectoral fin, and now his Caudal fin has some damage as well.
My question is: how much damage should I let happen before these fish need to be separated? I know aggression is a normal part of figuring out the hierarchy but I don’t want the davinci to die as a result. So far he’s happy as a clam even with his damaged fin, so I am doing everything I can to make sure he has a good diet to heal quickly. What else can I do to ensure quick recovery, and when should I call it quits and put the aggressor in a breeding box? Also - if I do separate them, when is it time to reintroduce them to each other? Does temporary separation and reintroduction even do anything for their long term relationship except give the damaged fish a break?
The attached pics show Tuesday vs. today (Friday) in the caudal fin damage. The Tuesday image is the one with more natural lighting and the current image is the bluer lights. You can see the damage got slightly worse.
Thanks!
I introduced two juvenile (no bigger than 1.25”) clowns into my tank on Dec 29. One is an orange storm and the other is a Davinci clown. The orange storm is just slightly bigger than the Davinci and is showing much more aggression. They do swim together and sleep together, but every once in a while the orange storm will nip at the davinci. Sometimes he will submit and twitch, and other times he just swims away from her and she leaves him alone. I don’t see any jaw-locking or severe thrashing, just nipping. I say “her” because I assume she will become the female between the two since she is slightly larger and showing much more aggression.
None of this behavior has prevented the submissive Davinci to show signs of stress. He’s still out in the front of the tank pacing the glass and exploring the tank and will still sleep with the Orange storm. But he is experiencing some fin damage as a result of the behavior. It started on his pectoral fin, and now his Caudal fin has some damage as well.
My question is: how much damage should I let happen before these fish need to be separated? I know aggression is a normal part of figuring out the hierarchy but I don’t want the davinci to die as a result. So far he’s happy as a clam even with his damaged fin, so I am doing everything I can to make sure he has a good diet to heal quickly. What else can I do to ensure quick recovery, and when should I call it quits and put the aggressor in a breeding box? Also - if I do separate them, when is it time to reintroduce them to each other? Does temporary separation and reintroduction even do anything for their long term relationship except give the damaged fish a break?
The attached pics show Tuesday vs. today (Friday) in the caudal fin damage. The Tuesday image is the one with more natural lighting and the current image is the bluer lights. You can see the damage got slightly worse.
Thanks!
