This is really starting to get to me...

I just got back from the gym and took a look at my tank, my little clown fish had no tail! When I go to the store tomorrow to buy another one (b/c all I want is a pair of FREAKING CLOWN FISH) it will be five in two months! The only other fish in the tank right now are a PJ Cardinal and another clown (slightly bigger than him.) I also have two pistol shrimp and a cleaner shrimp.

What on Earth could have taken that big of a chunk out of my clown's tail?

 

I would say your pistol is the most likely culprit. It may be attacking them as they sleep. It is also possible if you have any imported LR there may be some other predator in there such as a mantis shrimp.

 

Wow that is kinda weird, you have nothing in your tank that might have caused that, unless you didnt buy both clowns as a pair, if you didnt then what you might be seeing is the two clown fighting each other if both are the same sex and trying to establish dominance. Also how big is your tank? The smaller the tank the higher the probability of this type of behavior if they are not a pair.

 

God I hate those things, of the things that have died in my tank recently those jerks have not

75 Gal. 90+ lbs. LR. Clownfish, Pijama Cardinal

Sent from my Tundabolt using Tapatalk

 

Overly aggressive clown maybe? If you must get another clown, try and get one of similar size to keep the bullying down to a minimum.

 

Bought them seperatly b/c one always dies. One was much bigger than other and these two showed no aggression towards one another

75 Gal. 90+ lbs. LR. Clownfish, Pijama Cardinal

Sent from my Tundabolt using Tapatalk

 

I had two similar in size and they hated each other

75 Gal. 90+ lbs. LR. Clownfish, Pijama Cardinal

Sent from my Tundabolt using Tapatalk

 

You don't want to buy one similar in size. Always get a smaller one when introducing a new one to the tank. The smaller one will not be mature yet and the larger one will become the female.(if it hasn't already) Good luck.

 

OUCH! Im sorry about your little clown! could it maybe have been the other clown? If you keep getting new ones the original may be seeing them as threats to her territory. have you noticed any fighting between the clowns? and if not, maybe one of the pistol shrimp? i have never had one but i know they have a monster claw that is prob capible of slicing a clown in half. OR maybe you have a hitchhiker mantis shrimp in there preying on the small and weak??? or ALSO it could be that its none of the above and something is off in you tank, like high nitrates that your other fish are used to but the new additions are not and this time after the fish died someone started to snack on him...he may not have actually died from the bite...could you tell us your params?

EDIT: dang, i walked away when i started typing this and came back and finished still expecting to be the 1st and look! a whole convo happened in the 2 min i was away haha!

 

Why dont you take your other guy back to the LFS and then buy two clown of the same species, if they are a mated pair then it would be perfect if not buy same species but one bigger than the other. The reasoning behind that is all clownfish are born males. When the female dies in a group, the dominant male becomes the dominant female and one of the juveniles becomes the dominant male. I think that would diminish the fighting but just my two cents... I am not an expert just personal experience