clownfish aggression

[sleasia]

I'm not sure why this happened. I have 4 false perc clowns which have been in the main tank over 1 1/2 years now...all of a sudden 3 days ago two of the clowns began nipping and intimidating one of the other clowns to the point where they would not let it leave a certain corner of the tank and would not let it eat....so fearing the clown would eventually be "killed" I put it in the hospital tank for now....there is no signs of disease on the fish or on any of the other fish, and the water quality seems fine... ph 8.3, saline 1.025 temp78
alk 8.4 nitrite 0 nitrate 0....what gives here? Is this a mating behavior thing. Perhaps the two aggressors are now a mated pair and trying to dominate? have no clue? Since I am setting up another tank, perhaps I need to separate the 4 clowns into one pair in each tank?

 

[goodwin9]

I've had the same thing happen in my tanks. Seems to go in spurts. Last time, I added another anemone and that fixed it right away. . Maybe I've been locky, but I have never lost one when they were having their disagreements...

 

[sleasia]

Well I don't have any anenomes yet because my tank is fowlr...so I do plan on having them in the new tank, but it won't be ready for several months I imagine...do you think I should separate them into two pairs and just keep the non dominant pair in the qt for now? I knew you were not supposed to combine different types of clowns in the same tank, but I didn't realize there might be problems with clowns of the same type. :thinking: