strange ocellaris clown behavior

they wont really kill the third one out. normally the female will be left alone and the other two will chill together. thats what my trio did before the female passed

 

OK, I may be asking the same question twice but after all of the above, the small (male) clown has seemed to beat up the female and chased HER out of the anemone now!!! WTF?? Now the male goes into the anemone and every 5 min or so swims out and proceeds to attack the female!! Now does anyone think I should keep them together or should I still think about getting a third or should I just let them be and see what happens??

 

As long as they arent beating the crap out of each other I would leave them be for now. A little agression should be expected but I would have went with a trio IMO. Is that the onlt two fish in the tank? if so you might want to get another species of fish to get in the tank, kind of like a target fish so as the agreesion isnt just between the two clowns. Or you can try to place a picture of another clown on the outside of the tank away from the anemone, they may take this as a threat and bond a bit more instead of fighting. This procedure has worked in different applications.

 

I have lots of others in the tank as well - this is something that just happened within a few weeks where the female seemed to kick the males ass and he was in pretty bad shape for a few days. Then I noticed he was trying to get back on her good side and the next thing ya know the male beat up the female and kicked her out of the anemone - so strange?? Anyway, thanks for the info - If I gat another do you think they will gang up on the new one or vice versa?

 

I would try another and let the LFS know that you may be bringing it back, worst case scenerio. If you have some rocks that you can move around or out for a bit take some out. Take the two clowns out and place them in seperate tanks or holding containers. Then put the new clown in and then the other two, might help. Or just maybe by moving your rocks around that could help. Thats about all I have for you on this matter, all the clowns I have ever had got along for the most part after establishing their grounds. But all the info I have read on the matter says usually you want to get between 3 and 5 and wait for them to pair up then you can return the others. Or while shopping around ask if they have a mated pair.

 

Sounds good! Thanks again for all the info!

 

This happened to my clownfish as well. Most likely they were both male and this "battle" was to see who would become the dominant female. They should be coming back together relatively soon.

I would give them time. Adding another clown will be much more trouble than its worth.

 

This is normal. At least normal enough that it happened to my guys as well. Domestic problems...

 

+1 on this info. Most likely now that that is settled, the one in the anemone will become the female in time.