Obligatory pair of Clowns - Why do we do it?

MT. Reefer · Mar 2, 2016

Cment said:
It's a catch 22 with me, I love clowns but hate the personalities they get when older. I had to re home a pair that I had for 3yrs. I was getting into more sensitive fish, leopards and tamarins, and the clowns wouldn't play nice. Down the road im going to do an anemone and clown tank only attached to my tank.

That's what I did. I have a 28 Nano just for the clowns. I do have a Lawnmower in there with them that they don't seem to mind but I had to take a cleaner shrimp out that she almost killed.

cnseekatz · Mar 2, 2016

Atlantis14 said:
We have a mated pair of Goldflake Maroon Clowns in a 265 gallon tank. They are both vicious to the core. I love Clownfish but I would never again put a pair in my tank. The female ripped apart our Orange Linkia Starfish (named Gumby) when it got too close to her RTBA's. Thankfully, Gumby survived the mauling and has a central disc and two legs left. Since then she has moved in to the Carpet Anemone with her mate and completely abandoned the RTBA's – after she beat 4 of them to near death. She shreds, dislodges and moves anything she doesn’t approve of or placed near the Carpet Anemone. To our amazement she never attacks the Porcelain Anemone Crab that also hosts the Carpet Anemone. For the longest time my husband was the one reaching in to the tank to clean or place & move coral. I used to laugh hysterically when she nipped him because he reacted like she was a shark! After all, how bad could it hurt to be nipped by such a small fish??? He said it wasn’t the pain but rather the surprise of it. Although he knew it was inevitable it was still shocking how quickly that little *itch could fly across the tank and attack. I now stand guard and warn him the second she moves. On one of the most memorable and laughable occasions - the beauty & awe of a new, and freshly glued, piece of coral he was holding in place distracted both of us. In super-stealth mode she bit him exceptionally harder than usual. His arm flew out of the tank and drenched me from head to toe. Thankfully, I was two cocktails in to the evening and all I could do was laugh…and make a new cocktail! A couple months ago I wanted to surprise him with a nice piece of coral before he got home from work - soooo I had to reach in the tank. I was on one end and she on the other. I told myself “easy-peasy…you got this”. I only took my eyes off her for a second. She flew across the tank and bit me so hard it broke my skin and she’s done it twice more since then. We have a clear acrylic trap but she won’t go anywhere near it no matter what we bait it with. Every other fish in the tank will go in & out (for days) without hesitation…but that chick will have no part of it!

Love this story... so typical!