New Maroons HELP

I just added two baby maroons in my 55 gal. One is about 1.5 inches and has a slight gold color to its stripes. The other is just a little bit smaller. They have been together for a month with one other smaller guy maybe 1 inch, at my LFS. I took the two home 2 nights ago. They have already been eating and seem healthy. EXCEPT the larger one is lighting the smaller one up!!! Constently they are spinning and going after one another. Then at night they sleep on my closed gsp next to each other. The bigger one doesn't have a mark and the other ones fins are torn up pretty bad. So I go to the lfs and tell them my problem. At first I had wanted to get all three, they had been doing good with each other for a while, got two. The owner said get the other one and it would ease up on the one in my tank now. I now have three maroons that are sleeping together in my gsp and the two small ones are beat up pretty bad. What do I do???

 

Sorry to say that "maroon clowns" are amoung the most agressive of the family , that guy at the LFS store should have told you that ' and they get pretty big to ( as compared to most adult clowns ) maybe a 3rd would help defuse this agression between the 2 ,


and your in a 55gal. so there again agressive natured fish need lots of space , i know you like them im sure they are very pretty, even when adult sized ,
Oh did they have an anemone for a host ? , do you have one for them ?

I Always read up on a fish , invert , etc of its needs ie. agressiveness/likes dislikes , cause it always seems some schmuck' at the LFS store WILL sell you any thing .

Nano tanks as well have really become popular' in the last few years as well but care must be taken as to what species / fish / inverts can be added into such a confined space .

that why i moved to such a larger tank for my reef' ( i wanted more options as to what ' and how much i could add' ) even the most volitile of fishes can get along in larger tanks , but sadly in smaller ones they just don't have the room ' to roam with out running into each other and making a turf war .
but by no means is that a "set in stone " thing ive seen some fishes get along quite nicely in a smaller tank

 

I am betting that the small one you have now was the proverbial "3rd wheel" meaning the other smaller one might have been part of a pair and now that he is gone she (the larger one) is pissed and taking it out on him (the smaller one) When there were three in there the other one might have kept her mind off of the one she is beating the crap out of now.

As it has been said GSM Clowns can be one of the more aggressive of the clowns. You might try buying the third but don't be surprised if it doesn't help, because it may be to late. They may gang up on the one you have now and it would be in even more trouble.


Also as it has been said they do grow to be very large fish, I was at the Shedd Aquarium here in Chicago yesterday and they have a female and male along with a huge Green Carpet Anemone, the larger one of the 2 GSM's they had was at least 4 or 5 inches long.

As far as putting them in a larger tank, I had a 90 that I put 4 clowns into, 2 tomatoes and 2 skunks, all about the same size. All I can say is that when the dust settled all that was left was one really beat to crap tomato and one really puffed up and pissed tomato clown.

 

I am betting one of the small ones is not going to make it. :-/

The other will eventually "submit" and become the male.

Is ugly to watch but is normal.

Nature taking its course.


Good luck to you and clowns...


Scott

(If you can, pull one of the small ones now and return to LFS. You will be likely saving its life.)

 

Ok the third one i did get. He got smart and moved to the other side of the tank. The larger of the smaller two is on the bottom. He is doing fine except sitting on the bottom. the biggest one has started to not attack him. Now she is almost comforting him. Laying next to him sometimes. They both are eating very good. I may get rid of the third later on.

 

I would because them two will most likely become a pair and then the third one will just end up getting killed, or starve to death depending on how aggressive the pair becomes. I have two GSM and they are in the process of fighting and becoming a pair. It takes some time but it's just nature, but I would definitely get rid of the third wheel.

 

Well, the one that was getting beat on is now dead and my cleaner shrimp is having a feast. The third wheel is still on the other side of the tank, what now?

 

Again, nature will always find a way.

Your clowns will eventually mate up. If not, the smaller one will eventually become a casualty also.

They do sometimes fight to the death of one of them, esp with maroons.

Best you can do is keep trying until "love" takes. :-/



Good Luck to you and clowns.

 

PS....Make SURE you are adding same species of clowns!