Clown Fish Strange Behavior

[pnikiel]

I have a Yellow Stripe Maroone Clown that has an interesting habit and I've been wondering what it might think its doing.

I have a lot of rock and corral in my tank leaving only a couple small exposed areas of sand on the bottom. The Clown will swim to one of them, always the same one, and violently kicks up the sand with his tail then scoot away. Over and over and over again.

It's not a problem. And the fish is healthy. I was just wondering if anyone knew what it was trying to do.

 

[leebca]

Assuming there isn't any unknown factor you haven't mentioned, the fish is likely 'hunting.'

This fish is an omnivore. It eats both plants and whole animal life forms (pods, worms, etc.). By disturbing the sand, it may be looking for any living food that may be disturbed or become exposed.

Not a problem, but check on what you're feeding and verify it is the optimal types of food suitable for an ominivore AND that the fish is being fed enough.

 

[vaporize]

I will take another stand on this.

This is actually normal maroon territory marking behavior. It is very common for maroon (tomato, and some other) more territorial clownfish to do the sand moving, rock moving, "home renovations" to especially when it is right at their territory (i.e. near its host anemone or whatever host).

Don't mistaken this for spawning behaviour though, it is unrelated.

 

[Sneeyatch]

I would tend to agree more with vaporize on this. My maroon would only do this when I would remove freshly split anemones from it's territory. Aside from being completely bitten and attacked outright, it would then kick sand all over the place after I walked away.