What to do about my clowns??

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Lmg108

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jan 22, 2009
Messages
36
Location
California, KY
Okay so I just added 2 maroon clowns to my tank that already had 2 damsels in it (a blue and a lemon) The first few days the lemon one kept chasing and nipping at the newcomers. Well he has stopped nipping but now each clown stayes in an oposite corner of the tank and will not swim around. Should I just take the lemon one out? Why are they just staying seperated in the corners of the tank?....however they are eating whenever I feed them. Also I bought an anemene the same time I got the clowns...the clowns act like its not even there :( Do you think I just ended up with clowns that will not host or do you think they will act better if I get rid of the damsels?
 
Fyi, the clowns don't usually host an anemone, even if you bought one with the sole purpose of the clownfishs, so don't worry about that. As for the damsels, I hope someone can chim in and help you with that issue.
 
It`s not always a guarantee that clowns will host an anenome IME. My two settled for corals instead of the anenome I bought. Clownfish are basically damsels. Damsels will get pretty mean. I would think about getting rid of the two damsels and that should take care of the fighting for now.
 
True, any other newcomers might get the same harrasment from the damsels. If you really want damsels, get some later and make them the last additions. Were the clowns already a mated pair?
 
No they were not together in the same tank when I bought them. I noticed one of them has a little chip taken out of his fin...will this grow back? I think I am going to get rid of the lemon one and keep the blue one, He has not shown any aggresion at all but the lemon is mean as a snake
 
Are the clowns very different in size? Either you get lucky and they'll settle into the female and male roles.....

or one of them kills the other.
 
They are basically the same size. I dont know what to do now. Do you think it will be ok to get rid of just the lemon since the blue one has never shown any sign of aggresion?
Im not too bothered about the fact that they probably will not choose to host the anenome, I like having it just because they are so facinating.
 
Okay so I just added 2 maroon clowns to my tank that already had 2 damsels in it (a blue and a lemon) The first few days the lemon one kept chasing and nipping at the newcomers. Well he has stopped nipping but now each clown stayes in an oposite corner of the tank and will not swim around. Should I just take the lemon one out? Why are they just staying seperated in the corners of the tank?....however they are eating whenever I feed them. Also I bought an anemene the same time I got the clowns...the clowns act like its not even there :( Do you think I just ended up with clowns that will not host or do you think they will act better if I get rid of the damsels?

2 maroons in the same tank are usually a bad Idea. I'd only do it if one is bigger than the other, and I'd never add the smaller one later. I think that you may have issues with them later other than the damsels. Maroons are very territorial. If you resolve the damsel situation (probably will have to choose clowns or damsels, and take one ot the other back to the LFS), the maroons will probably go after each other. I have one, I love it, but the can be very aggressive in certain situations. i.e. more than one of same species in the same tank
 
2 maroons in the same tank are usually a bad Idea. I'd only do it if one is bigger than the other, and I'd never add the smaller one later. I think that you may have issues with them later other than the damsels. Maroons are very territorial. If you resolve the damsel situation (probably will have to choose clowns or damsels, and take one ot the other back to the LFS), the maroons will probably go after each other. I have one, I love it, but the can be very aggressive in certain situations. i.e. more than one of same species in the same tank

Ok so I am going after work to take 2 back, my new thought is to keep one Maroon clown and my blue damsel (since I have never had an aggresion problem from him) my only question is when I am wanting to add another fish (I would like to add a yellow tang next) will they terrorize him too? Ugh this is frusterating!!!!! :mad:
 
Damsels are aggressive. There's no easy way to put it. Clowns are damselfish as well. I dunno....it's hard to say. I have a Zebra Goby w/ my maroon clown, and they do great. I've also kept a Royal gramma w/ a maroon clown and it was fine. But then, I never had a damsel in there w/ them. It's hard to say. A tang may be ok, but I've never kept one in with my maroon.
 
Back
Top Bottom