Odd Clownfish Behavior - Rapid Mouth Movement

[cdness]

My tank is a 125G mixed reef. In the tank I have a pair of standard Occelaris clowns that host an RBTA. I also have a pair of Saddle Back clowns which host a GBTA. Both pairs were paired up before introduction to the 125G tank. I originally had the OCC clowns in my 75G for about 6 years. The Saddle Backs came from another reefer tearing down his tank and wanted them to be in a good home. Since both pairs were set together we put both pairs in the 125G tank awhile back.

The clowns lived peacefully together for almost 10 months. Last night, the saddle back clowns started to fight with each other. Their mouths were rapidly opening and closing They chased each other around even after lights out when typically they calm down. My wife called me today and said they are still doing it.

I am wondering if this is just a mating thing they do or if they are tying to kill each other?

Has anyone else seen this type of behavior before?

I am going to attempt to separate the saddle backs into a temporary 10G tank with egg crate to section off the tank and see if they cool down at all. I don't know what else to do to get them to stop fighting. I just don't want this to turn into an all out war and ending up with the smallest occ and largest saddleback once the war is done.

Edit: By the way the aggression is just between the two larger saddlebacks. They have been leaving the other pair of occ clowns alone so far. That's why I was leaning toward a possible breeding behavior...

 

[revsgirl]

:bump2:

 

[cdness]

On my local forum, someone mentioned possible Brooklynella, but more than likely mating ritual and need to let it take its course...

This raised another question. If it is a disease like Brooklynella, what causes it to pop up all of a sudden with no warning at all in a perfectly healthy aquarium? I have not added any fish in a very long time and by what I understand, Brooklynella is a fast moving and very deadly... You'd think it would have happened awhile ago if this is the case...

Still unknown as to what's going on.

 

[seamonkey84]

If you haven't added any cleanup crew,new rock, sand or macro algae them its prob not a like brooklynella. If the clowns had been together the whole time, and there's not yet a size difference then they are prob going through a dominance thing and you should let them settle it. The dormant one will get bigger and be the female. With a healthy fish, nipped fins heal fast.

 

[cdness]

They have been together for a long time and they have decided who was going to be the female. They are still doing fine this morning and they are in their normal places of the tank. She doesn't let him sleep with her in the nem, probably because he snores too bad or something, but they are both alive and healthy.

 

[soarer209]

They have been together for a long time and they have decided who was going to be the female. They are still doing fine this morning and they are in their normal places of the tank. She doesn't let him sleep with her in the nem, probably because he snores too bad or something, but they are both alive and healthy.

I know this was a very long time ago but my “male” is doing the same but they don’t fight but the “female” does sometimes chase him and he’s twitches to show she’s dominate but he moves his mouth like how you describe almost like if he’s talking lol I know a heavy breathing fish when I see one this guy just seems to be mumbling stuff ina way