Aggressive Clowns

[wickedpaul]

About a month back, I purchased 2 Sebae Clowns, and a Sebae anemone.
One of the clowns instantly got larger then the other one (female/Male). The female was always very aggressive towards the male never letting it near the Anemone, except when the light was off in the tank, then they would both sleep in the tentacles. When the lights where on, it was off limits for him. She nipped him up so bad, that at one point his whole left fin was almost gone, but he never seemed unhealthy or unhappy. His fin started to grow back, it was small but there.
About 5 days ago, I bought a second Anemone, a small pink haitian. He went straight to it, and started playing in it. He didn't pay much attention to the sebae anemone any more but the female still attacked him anytime he swam near her, or it.
Well, not sure what happened, but yesterday when I came home from work, he was laying on the sand in the back of the tank, stressed out, all his fins where all nipped up worse then ever. He died about an hour after I got home.
I thought that, and was told that, eventually they would bond and he would be taking care of her. But she just never caught on to that.

 

[27mtaylor]

Do you have any other fish in your tank? When I had two clowns in my tank, a percula and a clarki, the clarki would attack the perc. When the perc got tired and stressed the other fish started to nip and pick at him some too. He also eventually died.

 

[wickedpaul]

Originally Posted by 27mtaylor
Do you have any other fish in your tank? When I had two clowns in my tank, a percula and a clarki, the clarki would attack the perc. When the perc got tired and stressed the other fish started to nip and pick at him some too. He also eventually died.
The tank has
55 Gallons, 45-55 Pounds live rock.
Tested chemistry right after I noticed him stressed, and everything was at 0, except nitrates at 5ppm. The only other variable I had was tank temperature. The room got very warm yesterday afternoon, tank temp went from 82 to around 90 during the course of the day.
1 Sebae (2 Yesterday)
2 Perculas (They swim everywhere together, not interested in anemones at all)
1 Small Yellow Tang (Under 2 inches)
1 Small Koran Angel (1 inch body)
1 Royal Gramma
Clean up is
1 Coral Band Shrimp
3 Emerald Crabs
10-15 Red Hermit Crabs
15-20 Assorted small snails
The only fish that is ever aggressive is the large Sebae. She is aggressive towards the other clowns, and the Koran.

 

[27mtaylor]

That swing in temperature may have been the deciding factor on your clown fish that was already stressed out. Does your lighting heat your water up that much? I used to leave my AC off during the day while I was at work, and my lighting would heat the water up so I started to leave it on and it helped out.

 

[wickedpaul]

Originally Posted by 27mtaylor
That swing in temperature may have been the deciding factor on your clown fish that was already stressed out. Does your lighting heat your water up that much? I used to leave my AC off during the day while I was at work, and my lighting would heat the water up so I started to leave it on and it helped out.
It was not the lighting, it was a very bright day out, the room was closed, and I have an entire wall in the room that is all glass window. So the temp went way up in the room.
I will have to draw the shades more often I guess.
Well anyway, I am going to remove that Sebae clown. I only had them because I liked having the clowns in the anemones. They will come out, and my LFS has a small copperband butterfly at $21.99. He will replace those two I guess. Time to feed anemones by hand.