One week of terror

My clowns have been well behaved for 2 years, they lived with a citron goby, a yellow tail damsel and my beloved geriatric fireshrimp. It was a peaceful happy home, until last Saturday.

Awoke to find my citron goby crammed up the outflow, wedge so tight I had to use pilers to get him out. Freak accident hmmm.

While gazing at my little piece of the ocean I see one clown swim over and rip the antenna off my shrimp, wait, what. As I watched in horror the female at one side the male at the other they tried to remove him from his hole. So I decided ok I will change up the rockwork and see if that helps. It is now dawning on my what happend to the goby.

Next morning I can see my yellow tail damsel is cowering. And the aggression of the clowns is becoming more evident. The damsel is an older fish too, he should be able to hold his ground. As I ponder what to do the clowns go after the shrimp again, this time grabbing him by the legs, he did not survive this encounter.:-X Ok now I am mad.

As I proceed to feed the fish in the am of the next day I open the lid and what flies out at me but my old damsel, shot straight up and out. Well he is now living the peaceful life again in the sump.

I really liked the status quo but I guess the clowns have gone through some type of change at 2.5 years old and the tank will never be the same.:-[

I have included some pictures of the offending clowns. Do not be be lulled by their beautiful looks they are now killers.

 

Sorry to hear about your troubles. It is hard to understand why some animals can go for years and be fine and then turn on one another. just nature I guess. My 2 tangs just recently killed my copper banded butterfly so I understand how you feel.

 

That sounds strange to have happened. How big is your tank? Are the clowns a pair?

 

Sorry about the upset of balance in your tank,they are beautiful clowns,but clowns are damsels.I had a clarki that got the same way,one of the meanest fish i've ever had next to my blue velvet damsel.

 

Thanks all.

The tank is a JBJ 28 gal, they are not a breeding pair, but a pair. I looked for eggs, watched for cleaning behaviors, but no.

I really like the B/W misbars, they are usually so mellow, oh well. They now have the tank all to themselves.

 

interesting i had two B/W clowns starting to pair and a goby and shrimp but instead of the clowns being the jerks it was the goby....killed a clown not to steal your thread though im sorry abbout your loss

 

Did they recently start drinking, lying, stealing or exhibiting secretive behavior?

Sorry they went postal.

 

Sorry to hear, it really sounds like a prelude to mating even though you have not seen mating behavior. They are removing any potential egg predators I think.

 

Thing is....is that they dont speak english..but they secretly have grudges on eachother haha

 

That's how I feel. Animals have reason behind actions since they are just reacting to their environment. If they were fine for so long than this should be the most likely cause.

Unless the water isn't good or you changed their food or they weren't being fed enough lately or something of that sort.