Annoying Clown

[N1Husker]

I have a Gold Striped Maroon Clown and lately he has annoying my Tailspot Blenny. He doesn't attack or nip at him but wherever the blenny is the clown will chase him away. If he is at the top of the ricordia, in comes the clown. The benny swims under to the bottom side if the ricordia and here comes the clown pushing the blenny away again. He will back into his hole and the clown will swim in and the blenny swims out with the clown following. This will go on like this for about a minute or so and then the clown will swim over to a different part of the tank until he decides to go bug him later. This may happen 7 or 8 times a day. The blenny doesn't look injured and he comes out to eat at mealtime and picks at the rocks when he isn't being bugged by the clown. I know that this type of clown is suppose to be the more aggressive of the clowns, and except for this he has been pretty good. I keep watching for any increase in aggressiveness but so far this is all. Should I try to remove him or just keep an eye on them?

 

[senji]

ill take the clown off ya hed love my 90g reef all to himself

 

[N1Husker]

I'm not quite ready to give him up yet, he cost me $40 at Saltwater City, but he is beautiful. Orange with white stripes and gold through the white and black pinstripes and black splotches on his fins. That's him on my avatar. If I see I need to rehome him I will let you know.

 

[N1Husker]

I should also mention that the clown likes to pull corals that are placed in the substrate and relocate them for me. I have to glue everything down onto live rock or he will move it. Little pain in the butt. He is cute though.

 

[senji]

lol now thats funny just making it how he wants it.

 

[N1Husker]

Yeah, I think he's a bad influence because I now see my tang doing the same thing, but he moves the empty snail shells and piles them up in the corner of the tank, also. Moves them around with his nose, I don't know why, but he does. Weird fish.

 

[leebca]

The Anemonefish is exhibiting space issues. It is claiming the tank as its own. If the tank is smaller than 45 gallons, this would make sense. The kinds of Anemonefish are the largest of them all. The female can exceed 6 inches in length and I've seen them larger. As they mature they become more and more territorial.

The behavior won't stop in the current setup. Options include relocation of the fish (either one) or a major change in landscaping (which only has a moderate chance of success).

 

[user 26995]

OR AN UPGRADE TO A MUCH LARGER TANK! Lol....

 

[N1Husker]

Upgrading to a larger tank isn't going to happen anytime soon. I live in a 3rd floor apartment and 50 gallons is the max I can have.

 

[leena2674]

My maroons do the same thing. My female even has a tendency to sleep laying on top of a mushroom. Its on a rock on the substrate and she just moves it to wherever she wants. My male is more normal and sleeps in the long tentacle anemone.

They both tend to be territorial with regard to the area near the anemone, but won't pursue fish any more than just lunging at them. I used to have the female in a 29 gallon, and she liked to push my scooter blenny around the bottom of the tank. He didn't seem to mind though, because he never made any effort to swim away. Now that I paired the maroons in a larger tank they leave everyone else alone for the most part.

 

[N1Husker]

I don't have an anenome, I thought maybe if I got one that he might adopt that and leave the tail spot blenny alone. I put a fish trap in to try and catch him but he won't go near it. I've caught my red scooter blenny 4 times now, he goes in but can't seem to figure out how to get out. My tang goes in and out but the clown say's I know your after me but your going to have to be smarter than that. Well I have to go get the red scooter out again. He gets close to the opening and then turns around and goes back in. My clown also likes to lie in my mushrooms. Thank you for your info.

 

[kevnkev]

I've always had an anemone, so I can't speak to my gold stripe's behavior without one, but she currently spends 95% of her time snuggling in her anemone. She can get very aggressive with other fish, but this usually happens when the other fish is too close to her anemone. Otherwise she more or less leaves everyone alone. And yeah, I have to glue or wedge everything in, or else she redecorates for me.

 

[N1Husker]

Thanks kevnkev, I think I will try a RBTA and see if that settles him down. Like I say, he/she isn't nipping at my tail spot but where ever the blenny is, the clown doesn't want him there and chases him away. I think I will try a RBTA and see if he/she will adopt it.

 

[N1Husker]

Hooray, caught the litttle twerp. Took him back to the store and traded for a McCoskers Wrasse.