Clown being bullied.....

madroosta: Since you haven't had them all that long, could be a couple of things. Did you purchase them together? are they relatively young? If they are young this could be the struggle to figure out who is the male and who is the female. If that is the case could last a couple of weeks. When my pair were figuring it out, they fought for two weeks straight and my sebae anem was the casualty. I thought that I was going to loose one or both, but I kept a close eye on them.

Also, are they the same....false clown, maroon, etc.

The female is the larger of the two, are the hosting anything?

Also, are they false percs or maroon?

Do you know how old they are? My maroon clowns went through the same thing over 3 years ago. They were purchased together (though they weren't a pair in the LFS) as juveniles and shortly after introduction to the display tank the slightly larger one began bullying the smaller one. The larger one became the female (I think they were still young enough to be males when I bought them). I think it was a hormonal thing when the larger one became female. The smaller one spent its time hiding, and I had to target feed it because everytime it came out of hiding to try to get food the female would chase after it. The male ended up with ragged fins and I didn't think it was going to make it. After a couple of months, the female settled down and began to tolerate the male, and eventually they paired up and the female just had her first litter of eggs.

So be patient - the female may still settle down and pair up with the male. Just make sure the male has good places to hide and avoid the female until that time.