Tomato clownfish attacking Flame Angel

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icel

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Aug 17, 2009
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So I got a Flame Angelfish yesterday for my FOWLR 55.
The fish already in my tank were:
Melanurus Wrasse
Tomato Clownfish
Yellowtail damsel
Sixline Wrasse

Unfortunately right after acclimating him and putting him in the tank (lights were off), 30 minutes later I had to leave the house due to an emergency.
But during those 30 minutes with the lights off I observed the angelfish stick to the left side of the tank, just kind of swimming around nervously. But he looked okay, so I set the lights to turn back on again after 1 hour.

When I get back 4 hours later, my dad tells me that the clownfish was attacking the angelfish... i run to the tank, see that he's hiding in the same corner under a shell, and that his back fins are a bit shredded. Fortunately no wounds on his body. But the clownfish only had one small tear in his top fins.

I was told that this type of angelfish was semi-aggressive so you needed to add it in last? He looked 100% healthy in the LFS, even was eating. My own guess is that he's stressed from the change and doesnt want to defend himself?

But the thing is, I don't think it's a territorial thing because my clownfish's conch (The thing he is hosting and his small territory) is on the opposite end of the tank! Yet today I've been having to literally stop him every 15 seconds from swimming over to the other side where the poor angelfish is hiding and try to attack him. 20 minutes ago I was distracted by something for a bit and then heard a SNAP! noise and looked over and saw him attacking the angelfish, had to break the fight up.

So is the clownfish confusing the flame angelfish for another clownfish? I researched the compatibility of the two and it didn't seem like a problem.
If not, why is the clownfish the only jerk?
It sounds kind of weird to me, since this is what my clownfish looks like:

And my angelfish is bright red with yellow and looks nothing like him.

My wrasses that roam the entire tank just took one close look at him and now are ignoring the angelfish. The yellowtail damsel has his little territory behind the clownfish's conch, swam over briefly yesterday just to look at the angelfish and is ignoring it as well. The only jerk is the clownfish!

So I'm at a loss of what to do now.. Out of desperation I ended up covering up the conch's entrance with the big net so that the clownfish wouldn't get out.

Should I just leave the net around the conch until the Flame Angelfish is more confident to go out of his corner now? Or should I let the clownfish out and have them figure it out themselves? Do you think the clownfish will ever stop being aggressive to him? Or should I just get rid of the clownfish? (Which is hard cause I've had him since I started the hobby..)
 
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Cerianthus

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Jul 9, 2008
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Pretty common. Seen such behaviors b/n similarly colored Tomato/Fire clowns and Flame Angels even with Flame Hawk in 150 G but not always.
When Tomato is large and well established, I would be very cautious when adding silimilarly colored fish.

If possible, remove flame into clear but large diy palstic jar with bunch of holes (for circulation, more the merrier) and let them see each other for weeks if not months before letting it loose.
This extra effort usually yielded good results since such contrapations gave new fish an extra time to adjust to new water and surroundings without any harrassment.
When time comes to release, done in middle of the night.

btw, I always used this type of homemade contraptions when adding new ones to tank already filled with fishes, be it same species/genus/colored/shapes.

Hope all goes well!
 
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icel

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Aug 17, 2009
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So an hour after putting the net around the conch with the clownfish in it, the Flame Angelfish came out and has been swimming around the entire tank all day normally, he even ate some flakes. So the clownfish has been seeing him all day. He has made no attempt to get out of the net "house arrest," he's just laying there in the conch.
When the lights turn off tonight, I will remove the net and watch for the Clownfish's behavior when the lights turn on tomorrow morning. Hopefully then he will stop bullying the angelfish. If not, I will repeat the net thing again for a day or two, and if it still doesn't work I will have to trade in the clownfish at the LFS. I don't think the glass box thing will work because my tank is probably too small for that.. Don't want to stress the poor angelfish any more.
 

Haydn24

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Jun 28, 2010
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Aww sorry to hear. i hope it works out. even leave the net on longer if possible for better chances

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Slappy*McFish

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Feb 18, 2002
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Hopefully, it all works out because that is a nice looking Tomato Clown. It would be a shame to get rid of him.
 

icel

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Aug 17, 2009
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Last night I did not remove the net because I wasn't going to be home when the lights turned on in order to monitor the clownfish's behavior. When I got home and looked at the tank (2 hours after the lights turn on), the clownfish somehow managed to get out of the net and was behind the conch.
The Angelfish was hiding behind some live rock with his face poking out through a crevice, refusing to come out.
I took the net out of the tank and observed the clownfish. It seems like this whole thing backfired.... He is now attacking and chasing ALL of the fish who come to that half of the tank (whom he would never chase away unless they practically went inside of the conch) and being very aggressive!! I even fed him squid (his favorite), and he was still angry and did not stop. The angelfish came out slightly to try and grab a passing piece of squid and the clownfish immediately stopped what he was doing to charge at the angelfish, who further retreated into the LR.. After that I had to return him to the conch and put the net around him again.

It pains me to say it but I'm going to have to give him to the LFS. :(


The Flame angelfish has stopped hiding and is swimming around freely and eating fine, but I noticed that one of his eyes is somewhat cloudy. I assume this is from the stress from the aggressive clownfish? Will this go away on it's own? :( I will do a 20% water change tomorrow.

And I think I might want to replace the tomato clownfish with an ocellaris. I don't know too much about these kinds of clownfish, is it okay to keep them alone? I have only ever seen them in pairs. Would they have the same problem with the angelfish as the Tomato did because of the coloration? The angelfish is 4 inches long by the way.
 

Haydn24

Boo!
Jun 28, 2010
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Australia
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Haydn
yeah maybe he Is being defensive of his home so if you take it out he might have to find a new territory amongst everyone else. good luck! sometimes these things happen and it sucks

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