Aggressive Clown Fish

I bought my two clown fish 3 months ago together. I have not had an issue until a week or so ago when the larger one started chasing the smaller one to a certain corner of the tank. Any ideas why? They are in a 29 Biocube

Thank You

 

probably showing dominance since the bigger one is probably a female or becoming female......

 

It's because they are clownfish and it's what they do. There are tons of threads on this site alone about aggressive clownfish behavior but people keep putting them together expecting everything to be a-ok. Just because you buy them when they are little doesn't mean they are going to fall in love and become a mated pair. That's sort of like taking 2 random children of opposite sexes and locking them in a building for 20 years hoping they eventually fall in love. Just sayin

 

Here is a photo of the tank after 3 months!

 

It's nothing new with clowns. Sometimes the bigger one can be really aggressive. But they're not all like that. Nice tank btw.

 

Only time will tell- the dominance ritual can sometimes become brutal for a while; on occasion, the female will reject the male once they've matured, and may literally kill him in a smaller tank.

 

My Clarkii would go after anything near her, even the cleaner shrimp.

 

If the smaller clown shows submission that the larger female finds satisfactory she will eventually back off. The small clown should be shaking and shimming in response.

If for some reason the smaller clown does not display these passive responses and the larger clown begins to actually cause physical injuries, the smaller clown hides in the corner, stops eating or is breathing hard then you should intervene and remove one or the other.

They will more than likely work it out and this behavior may occur as they mature and re-establish the pecking order.

Sometimes though the female decides the male or smaller fish is not worthy and she will kill it.

 

So Romantic!

 

Sounds like a girl I dated ...