paired clown fish turn extremly violent

[carbon]

I have a pair of two clarkii clowns that have cohabited for nearly four years, they have always been extremly well behaved together. I awoke this morning and everything seemed fine only to get a call at work two hours later that my smaller clown was looking like it was going to tip over. Ran home to find the large clown ripping at the small clown relentlessly. Long story short put the little guy in the fuge and the large clown calmed down. The small clown tried to leap over the ledge of the fuge luckily I caught her in time. Re baffled so that wont happen again!!! anyone have any suggestions on what the heck might be going on between the two? any help is appreciated!

 

[cmor1701d]

Actually the small one is the MALE and the larger one is the female. Seems they have sexual maturity and are ready to breed. The female can get pretty rough for a few days till it calms down. If it was really bad you did the right thing in seperating them before she killed him.

"When the fish are ready to spawn, they become very aggressive. The male clownfish will dance up and down in front of the female (also known as “clownfish waggle”). They will also start to clean their selected rock by robustly biting it. The spawning itself usually occurs in the afternoon or early evening. Once the spawning is complete (within several hours) the male takes on responsibility for attending them, whereas the female acts as protector of the eggs and supervisor of her male.

The spawning is likely to be occurred again at intervals of 12 to 18 days. The eggs should be left in their care and not removed, except if the parents are known to be egg-eaters. At first, the eggs are a bright orange color, which after a several days diminishes and the eyes appear. Hatching usually takes from 6 to 15 days, depending on the temperature"

In our tanks the eggs become free fish food.

 

[melosu58]

I agree with Cmor. Looks like he has you covered.