Agressive Clown Behaviour

Ive had these two b&w Clowns in my tank as well as a fire and watchman gobies since the beginning.. but lately the clowns have been really agressive towards my fire goby.. i have no clue why. But regardless im worried about the little guy lol.. any ideas on the sudden agression?

 

Clowns are aggressive fish if they're breeding or feel their territory is being infringed by other fish. Sometimes, that territory line moves out as they get bigger.

 

Clowns are fancy damsels. I've had them attack my hand when cleaning the tank. Others have had them draw blood when they've put their hands in the tank.

 

Clowns are pretty aggressive when they are in a tank for a while and then the new guy comes in and what not..For example..A freshmen on the football team and all the seniors picking on him haha.

Most of the time they cool off, i had two farely large clowns that would pick on the new fish for a few hours to a few days..But they will eventually stop with the picking on him.

The new fish will mostly hide away for a bit and the clowns will lay off, the new fish will learn whos boss! haha

 

If the clown is showing significant aggression toward the fire fish I would take it seriously and remove one or the other. I watched my female clown drag my large YMG around by the tail the other day, this is the same clown that killed a large fire shrmp and almost killed off a large older damsel ( he now lives in the sump).

 

the fire fish isnt new, been in there since the beginning with the clowns.. and yeh i forgot to mention, the other day i was cleaning the tank and one of them bit my finger lol .. surprised the hell out of me. but everyone thinks itll go away or?

 

I have to remove my 3.5 year old female from the tank to do any maintenance witch is not hard because she always attacks the container, takes about 3 minutes to remove her. I had a very similar issue with a large Maroon female that killed all other fish. So from my experience it does not get any better.

 

Really?

I have a set of Wyoming Whites that will eat out of my hand and play with my Yellow Tang.

I also introduced a pair of Picassos into to tank last night and the four of them swam around and played. Once the lights went out, each pair went to it's own side of the tank for the night. It was rather stressful and I did not get any sleep last night checking on them!!!

 

Oh no, does this mean I should get rid of one of the two?

 

I do not think so...I know someone that has a Picasso that will bite him if he is cleaning the tank when he goes near his anemone. The aggression of clowns can change and as long as they are not attacking the other fish your fine. Everytime I put a new fish in, my wrasse will punk on them for a bit but leave them alone after a few days.

Just watch and make sure they are not biting each other is the biggest thing. If he is, you may put one in the sump for a few days and hope the aggression ceases.