Help! My clowns have behavioural problems!

[comet_nut]

Ok Im at a loss as to what to do with my juvanile maroons. They are in a 55 with two blue damsels and comet grouper. The other fish, including the grouper, stay well away the clowns and their BTA. The problem is that they are getting territorial to a point where I cant put my hand in the tank to feed the anenome let alone clean the tank. At the moment they are both about 5 months old, they were bought from the store together as 2month old tank bred maroons. At no time have they displayed hostility towards each other or serious aggression to the other fish.
Basically the senario goes like this: open lid to feed ot clean tank, the clowns are at the top of the tank circling either waiting to attack me or get the food at feed time. As soon as I put my hand in the tank its attack time, they bite my arm hand or whatever else they can bite/headbutt. Its not to bad at the moment because they are only small (about an inch long) but I am dreading when they get bigger! Even if I feed them near their anenome and put my hand in the other end of the tank they will dart up the other end to attack me.
I have at no time hand fed them so they havent associated my hand with food. Ive tried moving the rock around to confuse them but it makes no difference.
When the damsles are near the BTA the clowns will chase them off but they leave the grouper. Before anyone makes a gripe about the grouper in this tank he is the most docile fish I have in the tank and in the year that I have had him he has never made a move to eat any of the other fish.
The is about 80lbs of rock in a 55 tank, so lots of rock work to hide in. Parametres are ammomia 0, nitrite 0 and nitrates 5. PH is 8.3 temp is 78.
They are fed once a day on a mix of marine fish dinner and mysis shrimp soaked in garlic.
Yes i have tried smaking the clowns but it only seesm to divert them for about a minute before they attack me again. They will eventually leave you alone if you hand is in the tank for more than about 5 min and your hand doesnt move. Its not just my hand that gets savaged, they will attack the net as well if its in there.
What the hec do I do with them? Byt he way the clowns are both the same size as each other

 

[snailheave]

i think they are behaving like how maroons behave - somewhat aggressive.
try feeding your anemone with a stick or a pair of chopsticks.

 

[comet_nut]

Yes I realise maroons are aggressive buit I have a fully mature maroon in another tank of mine and yes there is defence of her home when anything goes near it, but she is nowhere near as aggressive as these two

 

[snailheave]

where maroon is different. i have had a few that behave differently.
some cats claw you; some snuggle against you.

 

[palmer]

As far as feeding the anemone is concerned...I use a piece of welding aluminum..no really. It's aboout 30 inches long and about 1/8 inch diameter. Before feeding the anemone I'll drop small pieces of the same food in the tank so the hermits, cleaner shrimp, and other fish won't take it from the anemone. I'll place the piece of food on the tip of the welding bar and put the food directly where the mouth is. Try keeping everything occupied when you feed the anemone.

 

[mary]

Comet, I actually put my clarkii's up for sale because they were pushing corals, rocks , just behaving horribly in my tank and always biting me when uprghting or doing maintenence. The biting doesn't hurt so just let them but the corals were really struggling to come back to normal from the constant upheavel. They even toppled their own finger-spaghetti coral [still don't know what it is] which they feed as if it were an anemone. Needless to say they did not go after me when I uprighted it. They then, after two more days of really unusual movements and behavior, had a mass of beautiful orangy-pink eggs on their favorite rock. Yours being 5 months old would be unusuallyoung to spawn.. But, it still could be. Be patient. Hopefully you will be able to raise yours if you have another tank.
If you see them constantly pecking an area gently, not pushing but almost kissing an area under or around their coral, they may be getting prepared to spawn. The male also did a back and forward movement which was very unusual, as the female was elsewhere. The clowns guard their eggs with aggression! Nothing can get near. I would try to raise them but attempted to raise brine shrimp before failing miserably after spending lots of money on all the necessary equipment..Am so glad I didn't remove them. Your tomato clowns are more aggressive than other clowns, so I have been told but honestly. so are my clarkiis, especially now.

 

[clarkiiclo]

My Clarkii is a mean little guy too. My husband was doing some maintenace on an adjacent rock and the Clarkii wouldnt leave him alone.
Sounds like a normal maroon. Mean!

 

[comet_nut]

This may sound really mean but Im thinking of tossing them into the 70 with the trigger. The trigger is a blue chin and is fairly docile but definitely wont put up with their behaviour. Is out bullying the maroons with a bigger bully a good idea or just down right mean?

 

[mary]

Comet, Please just sell them back or trade for something at your LFS. Please don't do that. They will suffer and be terrified. They are just what they are. Wherever you purchased them should have told you they were aggressive. I have read it about them. Can you sleep at night knowing they may die a slow death? They won't be eaten in one gulp. It is well known clown fish do get aggressive. Now I have to worry about my very sweet but young yellow tail damsel. The Framingham LFS , not the store I usually go to, told me it was a semi-aggressive fish. I suspect he just wanted to sell. But have read that they are the least aggressive of the damsels. Please don't put your beautiful clowns with that prey fish. After all we are the ones that purchase sometimes with out enough forethought. My male clarkii never in the five years I have had him showed any agression until now. The female has always been somewhat aggressive but now with them guarding their eggs, they are both very protective. Things may change.for you if you give them more time.

 

[comet_nut]

relax I ment my last post in jest