[holiday]

I woke up this morning to find my little angels in a huge fight. I have had this pair for over 14 months. They went in at about 1" a piece and seem to have sexed themselves and became a mated pair. One is larger than the other and they have been doing the fluttering dances for months. They host in my mushrooms and brown button polyps not the carpet anemone that's around the corner. Anyways the larger of the two was attacking the crap out of the smaller one. Took chunks out of a pectoral fin and tail. I left nature alone for awhile but I couldn't stand it anymore. I caught the little one and put it in a breeding box for awile to give it some breathing room and to tell the other one to back off. I let the little one back out after about 2 hours. They are now on separate ends of the tank. Is this normal? Were they just having a lovers spat or should I move the little clown into one of my other tanks. I am afraid that after I go to bed there will be another huge blowout fight. Is the larger of the pair the male?

Let me know what's up. Thanks. Noel

[T-Bone]

Thats sounds like a nightmare... If my clowns started flipping out like that I might have a mini heart attack

I don't think that I would be able to sleep knowing that there was a chance of one of them not making it through the night. Best of luck my friend... I would keep one of them, prob the aggressive one, QT for the night.

Sorry I couldn't be more help.

[holiday]

Well, they both survived the night. I came out to see the tank this morning and the larger one had ahold of the smaller one by the top fin and was pulling it all over the tank. I broke them up and put the little one back in the breeder box. I guess I will be setting up my qt today. The little one also has a couple bite marks out of it's right side.

Can anyone give me a clue as to what is going on? THis isn't part of mating is it? Which one is the male? Maybe the female is beating up the male.

Noel

[capitalb]

The bigger one is the female. I've noticed on most mated pairs of percula type clown fish, the male has missing pieces of dorsal fin. Although I've never witnessed a fight, I would have to say this is normal. What type of clown fish do you have? If they are maroons there may be a fight to the finish. If they are oscellaris the male is having a hard time being submissive. QTing the fish may not be a bad idea if you QT the aggressive female. Good luck

Bob

[holiday]

They are tank raised false perc's. I will try and get a pic of the smaller one tomorrow. It has an eraser size chunk out of it's size and all fins are chewed up. THey have done the mating dances for months and they have had small tiffs but nothing like this. I would rather separate them into different tanks ( I have 3 to choose from) than for the larger one to kill the smaller one.

Noel

[holiday]

I can't get a clear pic of the little one to show how bad it's side is. It does seem to be healing and it is swimming and eating like normal. I am going to move the larger one(female into one of my other tanks). Do I put her by herself or in my tank with one other single clown? How do clowns do when they are separated from their mate? Will they each die?

Noel

[aryesapir]

I had the same thing happen with my Maroons. There were fine for months (7 or 8) and then all of a sudden they went crazy. The female almost killed the male and I had to separate them. Ultimately, I gave the aggressive one away to a friend. They are both doing well now, but in separate zip codes.

Hope it works out for you, good luck

[pogodzib]

Clowns can get aggressive to the point of killing their mate, but usually perculas are as bad as other types of clownfish. In the future, if you decide to separate two fighting fish, try catching the aggressive fish and put it in the breeding box instead the that submissive fish. This way, it will teach the bully fish that fighting is bad and you'll have a better chance of the fish not fighting again. Kind of like punishing kids, you punish the bully by putting him/her in the corner instead of the one that is getting beat up.

[holiday]

I tried putting the aggressive one in the box and it didn't teach it a lesson. They are now in separate tanks. They lived together happily for 15 months. I was shocked when they turned on eachother.