Clown Trouble what do I do now?

[carey]

So I have a 55g with 4 clowns, 2 b&w's and 2 regular oscellaris. I did a bunch of research before putting 2 sets in and it seemed as long as you stuck with the oscellaris you would be fine. Well, the regular ones are causing havoc, well the female is anyways. And no i told ya so's cause I accept that i screwed the pooch on this call.

They have my b&w's hiding on the sand under a rock. I have the biocube but I don't wanna put the aggressive ones in there with my scooter and tiny gobies coming tomorrow.

My options are: let them fight it out and figure it out. i am not ok with this option. I just put the troublemakers back in the 55g today after an extended stay in an empty 29g I am selling.

I can put the black tank bred ones in the cube, they are very docile, but it might be hard to catch them. Plus it will be tight in the cube I think.

Or i can try to bring them into a lfs and call it a day. Not too thrilled with this option either.

Any one have any opinions or other options? I am heartbroken to see my poor babies laying on the sand. :-(

 

[Bige]

Pull them out. It wont get better. My clowns have killed every fish I have ever kept with them. Mean little fish. But to other clowns, death will come. So you can let them fight it out but it result in death.

 

[carey]

I caught the nasty orange female and put her back in the 29g. I was thinking on maybe returning her and keeping the small male in the cube. I hadn't thought about keeping just one clown but how's that sound?

 

[Flake]

Sounds like a decent solution to me.

 

[carey]

Will the one clown be ok by himself? Like I said I never really considered it before. I just wanna do whats right by the fish. I don't think the nasty female will be appropriate for any of my tanks. The male orange one is really cute too, he has no bars just little stubs of white.

 

[Bige]

That will work for now. Just watch for aggression and you should be fine. As far as one by itself, thats fine. Seems when they are together, the aggresive behavior increases.

 

[Flake]

single clowns do perfectly fine. He's still an aggressive eater so you're going to have to work to make sure the scooter gets food for a while, but it should all work out perfectly.

 

[carey]

Thanks guys, gonna move the little orange one over now to the cube and maybe return the large nasty female tomorrow or this weekend. She's in the timeout 29g now. All she has is rock in there to torment now. lol

I won't mess things up since they seemed to have already paired?

Thanks so much guys for the responses, I'm literally freaking out over here. lol

 

[carey]

I have been trying to catch the little guy for an hour now. LOL If he makes me break my tank down to get at him.....little stinker...

 

[hackteck]

lol hes not gonna make it easy is he

 

[Fishbone13]

What are you use's to try and nab him?

 

[carey]

I'm using nets. I tried to get him out with food but just couldn't get at him. My rock work is now a major hinderance. lol

I'm thinking of putting lights out early tonight and catch him while he cuddles with the two black clowns. Not sure if that would be rude or not waking him up. Plus the black clowns love the stupid net they always try to get in it so that's another problem I'm having trying to catch this 1/2 inch fish.

i have probaly 90lbs of rock in the 55g now and everything is perched just so. I've already gotten several corals mad at me while I was chasing.

 

[Henry405]

wouldn't the normal male just turn female and become aggressive later on? Just mentioning that since no1 else did. New tank!

 

[Fishbone13]

You could try one of those clear plastic fish traps or just one of the clear plastic containers they use at the LFS to snatch em up for you. I'd send the link of a pic of the trap and the containers but I'm at work and they have the site blocked. But go to fosters and smith and check it out, I think ones under traps and I'm not sure what the other one is under. Good luck.

 

[carey]

I plan on rehoming the nasty female, she's caught and isolated already. The tiny male is still in the 55g but he seems to be doing ok for now. The B&W clowns are tank bred ora's so they are really really non aggressive. at least for now. The difference in the wild and not wild fish is striking. lol

In a few days or when the 3 some becomes not acceptable I will move the little male clown over to my cube. I did want a designer clown in there, guess i will have to settle for a misbar.

If I got a larger fish would he mate up again? or should i stick with the current plan?

 

[Fishbone13]

My GUESS is yes. But The one of the mated pair that died on me was the male. So I got an even smaller male than the one that died and these 2 are inseperable. And on top of it the new male is a black and white one. So he'd a different male and a different type of clownfish and it's worked out so far. I say go for it.

 

[MississippiFishGuy]

If the female is being aggressive it's because she is establishing dominance. If you have a problem with them you could get a bigger tank and it would easily solve the problem but then again not all fish are the same I say let them fight and you can only hope none of the fish get killed in the process.

 

[Sarcothelia]

Just stick with a pair. Unless you have a huge tank or more host anemones than you can handle, keeping a large number is asking for trouble. While diving in Hawaii I saw a 5x5' anemone of some sort with 10 or so black and white clowns. They looked like they were duking it out to the death!

Assuming you know which are males and females, keep one male and one female. If they are ALL females, just keep one female. Multiple females will fight it out to the death.

I've just got one Ocellaris so I don't have to worry about it

 

[carey]

I have two pairs, 2 of each sex. It was the orange female that is attacking all the other 3 clowns. Has my royal gramma afraid to come out. LOL

I have the mean female currently alone in a 29g and thee orange male is hanging with my b&w clowns for now. Iplan on moving him to my 29g cube and returning the nasty female.

I do have two corals that the threesome is hosting so thats' keeping them happy for now. The b&w's are tank bred and are really really wussies.