Suffered a fatality with my Onyx pair... what now?

Mbrklynb · Jun 4, 2019

Unfortunately I lost my male clown today, found him on my floor dried up this afternoon. I’m 100% positive it was because of the female. They were fine the first few months but she started getting aggressive with him when he tried to swim with her. She was like this for a few weeks and was really a pain to him at night, she thought the entire top of the tank was hers and would chase him out of her space and even out of his. The passed few weeks have actually been good though, lights off and she’d keep to herself, I did notice his spot was getting further out of sight from her though. I’m guessing she chased him out last night. Actually pretty down about it but was wondering about a solution. Should I just keep her by herself with the gramma or would she be better off with another mate? Would appreciate some feedback! Thanks guys

Ron Reefman · Jun 5, 2019

Good question and either of your solutions is acceptable. Your clown will be 100% OK without a mate, just like most of your other fish are. You can try introducing a new male and I'd give you a 50:50 chance of it working out long term. Good luck either way.

I had a similar situation and got 2 smaller clowns to go with my recently turned female clown that had chased out a mate. She took to one and I had to move the other to a different tank (lucky that I have 2). The one I moved would eat and eventually died about 3 weeks later. The one that stayed was fine for several months and then disappeared? I looked all over outside the tank and couldn't find it. I have rock work that is pretty easy to inspect and I didn't find it in there. My assumption is it got taken by one of my big Rock Flower Anemones. Maybe the nem was being aggressive, or the clown was being stupid, or the clown was ill and just got too close. BTW, RFA's are not known for taking live fish, but that's the general rule and you can never be 100% sure about anemones. Now my clown is a 2 time widow and probably won't get another chance. But she'll live a good long life as a single female.

Mbrklynb · Jun 5, 2019

Ron Reefman said:
Good question and either of your solutions is acceptable. Your clown will be 100% OK without a mate, just like most of your other fish are. You can try introducing a new male and I'd give you a 50:50 chance of it working out long term. Good luck either way.

I had a similar situation and got 2 smaller clowns to go with my recently turned female clown that had chased out a mate. She took to one and I had to move the other to a different tank (lucky that I have 2). The one I moved would eat and eventually died about 3 weeks later. The one that stayed was fine for several months and then disappeared? I looked all over outside the tank and couldn't find it. I have rock work that is pretty easy to inspect and I didn't find it in there. My assumption is it got taken by one of my big Rock Flower Anemones. Maybe the nem was being aggressive, or the clown was being stupid, or the clown was ill and just got too close. BTW, RFA's are not known for taking live fish, but that's the general rule and you can never be 100% sure about anemones. Now my clown is a 2 time widow and probably won't get another chance. But she'll live a good long life as a single female.

Wow that’s a story right there lol. Sorry to hear about the little guys, but that’s good your female is alright alone. I was wondering if she actually wanted him out of the tank or if she just was asserting herself and it happened. They were swimming together almost all day so I’d imagine it wasn’t intentional. Then again who knows haha. I have a 30 gal lrowf, a scooter, my clown and a gramma. I was thinking about a few chromis or a few cardinals. I def want to upsize very soon