Lost a clarkii to harrasment? should I get a new one?

gexkko

Member
about a month ago I purchased two clarkii clowns for my 29g reef. One started hosting my green bta almost immediatley, the other never did. The last two weeks I noticed the bta-hosting clown being very aggressive towards the non-hosting clown. The submissive clown started spending a lot of time in the upper corners of the tank, either the front right corner near my thermometer or the rear left corner near my skimmer intake. He always ate during feeding time, but then returned to one of those two spots shortly thereafter.
When I fed the tank this morning, all my fish ate (I have two clarkiis and one coral beauty). When I got ready to leave for work, I checked on the tank one last time and noticed the submissive clarkii had been sucked into the inlet of my skimmer, and subsequently died. I can only assume this happened because he was weak from lack of rest due to harrasment, as he had been over there numerous times in the past two weeks w/o any problems. FYI, I have an AquaC remora with the bigger pump (I can't remember the name atm).
Should I bother getting another clarkii if my current one is so aggresive that it causes the death of its tankmate? Are there things I can do to prevent such a tragic outcome in the future? Any help would be appreciated.
 

fedukeford

Active Member
you probley shouldnt get another clown, the same thing will probley happen, to prevent things from getting sucked up by intakes put sponges over all intakes
 

gexkko

Member
Yeah, I'll be adding sponges this week. Most of my intakes have guards on them, except for that one because the intake is so close to the side of the tank that a guard wouldn't fit.
It seems like it was inevitable that he would die from the stress now that I've read a few more threads, which definitely saddens me. I loved having two clowns. However, I don't want to risk the life of another clown.
Are there any other fish I could get for a 29g that are active swimmers but won't put up with harrasment/won't harrass my other two fish? I was thinking about a damsel or two. I've heard some bad things about damsels, but the fact that they are a little more aggressive might keep my clarkii from pushing it around. Any other feedback?
 
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