freelancing
06/06/2002, 09:50 AM
I know clowns are known for their bizarre antics, but my female false perc has been extremely aggressive in the past week. :eek:
I have had my tank for a little over a year. I bought it used from a woman who had it for 7 years and she bought it used. She had a pair of false percs in there from day one and I inherited the pair when I bought the tank... so they are at the very least 8 years old.
The previous owner said that before she started neglecting her tank (her father was very ill and she tended to him instead of the tank), that the clowns mated and had babies all the time, but the babies would always vanish (by being eaten or sucked up into the overflow - she didn't know)... I have never seen any babies, nor any overt mating behavior in the past year.:confused:
My routine is to put a plastic cup into the tank and retrieve a little tank water and I sit the cup on top of one of the lids of the tank - then I put in some frozen food and let it thaw out for about 10 minutes and then pour the cup back into the tank. My fish (the 2 percs, a yellow-tailed damsel, neon dottyback, a regal tang and a greenbird wrasse) know my routine and are typically assembled in a little circle awaiting the pouring of the food stuffs.
For the past week or so, the female false perc has been aggressively charging the cup as I put it in to retrieve some tank water. It's a big tank (140 gal), so it's not like I'm crowding the fish when I do this. The first time she did it, I was un prepared, and she knocked the cup out of my hand and the cup flew across the room. For the past week, I've had a more firm grip on the cup so it doesn't get knocked out of my hand, but she hits it fast and hard and repeatedly if I don't take it out fast enough.:eek:
Three days ago, she jumped out of the water and landed on top of the light ballasts. Fortunately, the lights were off at the time, or I would have had fried fish.:eek2:
This morning, she literally flew out of the tank and landed on the livingroom floor.:eek1: I do not have carpet - just concrete floors, so it was quite a dramatic fall... considering the height of the tank, it would be the equivalent of me jumping off a 10 story building and landing on the pavement. I quickly picked her up and put her back in the tank. She seemed totally unscathed and unfazed - if anything she seemed pumped and ready to fight. Obviously, I don't want her to fly out and hit herself on the floor again.
I'm wondering if this is a sign of an illness or something else like a dietary deficiency... or should I just write this off as typical unpredictable clown behavior?:crazy1:
Currently, I do not have any anemones. I had a pink tenticle anemone that began to walk across the tank in a trail of destruction as it stung 3 corals to death, so I got rid of the anemone. I had a sebae anemone after that, but the female clown began to act aggressively toward the anemone after I had the anemone for about 2 months... she began to uproot it from the sand and flip it over... eventually she killed it.:strange: I've been told that clowns can live perfectly healthy, happy lives w/o anemones, but considering that one would never find a clown far away from its anemone in the wild, I have to wonder if lack of an anemone doesn't cause some sort of anxiety or stress.
My greenbird wrasse seems to be the only overtly intelligent fish in my tank and he learns quickly... but I'm afraid my clown doesn't have enough brain cells to learn from her bad experiences and to cease ... uh ... clowning around.
Has anyone else experienced this sort of behavior in a false perc? Any idea as to what's causing it or how to prevent it?:fish1:
Thanks,
I have had my tank for a little over a year. I bought it used from a woman who had it for 7 years and she bought it used. She had a pair of false percs in there from day one and I inherited the pair when I bought the tank... so they are at the very least 8 years old.
The previous owner said that before she started neglecting her tank (her father was very ill and she tended to him instead of the tank), that the clowns mated and had babies all the time, but the babies would always vanish (by being eaten or sucked up into the overflow - she didn't know)... I have never seen any babies, nor any overt mating behavior in the past year.:confused:
My routine is to put a plastic cup into the tank and retrieve a little tank water and I sit the cup on top of one of the lids of the tank - then I put in some frozen food and let it thaw out for about 10 minutes and then pour the cup back into the tank. My fish (the 2 percs, a yellow-tailed damsel, neon dottyback, a regal tang and a greenbird wrasse) know my routine and are typically assembled in a little circle awaiting the pouring of the food stuffs.
For the past week or so, the female false perc has been aggressively charging the cup as I put it in to retrieve some tank water. It's a big tank (140 gal), so it's not like I'm crowding the fish when I do this. The first time she did it, I was un prepared, and she knocked the cup out of my hand and the cup flew across the room. For the past week, I've had a more firm grip on the cup so it doesn't get knocked out of my hand, but she hits it fast and hard and repeatedly if I don't take it out fast enough.:eek:
Three days ago, she jumped out of the water and landed on top of the light ballasts. Fortunately, the lights were off at the time, or I would have had fried fish.:eek2:
This morning, she literally flew out of the tank and landed on the livingroom floor.:eek1: I do not have carpet - just concrete floors, so it was quite a dramatic fall... considering the height of the tank, it would be the equivalent of me jumping off a 10 story building and landing on the pavement. I quickly picked her up and put her back in the tank. She seemed totally unscathed and unfazed - if anything she seemed pumped and ready to fight. Obviously, I don't want her to fly out and hit herself on the floor again.
I'm wondering if this is a sign of an illness or something else like a dietary deficiency... or should I just write this off as typical unpredictable clown behavior?:crazy1:
Currently, I do not have any anemones. I had a pink tenticle anemone that began to walk across the tank in a trail of destruction as it stung 3 corals to death, so I got rid of the anemone. I had a sebae anemone after that, but the female clown began to act aggressively toward the anemone after I had the anemone for about 2 months... she began to uproot it from the sand and flip it over... eventually she killed it.:strange: I've been told that clowns can live perfectly healthy, happy lives w/o anemones, but considering that one would never find a clown far away from its anemone in the wild, I have to wonder if lack of an anemone doesn't cause some sort of anxiety or stress.
My greenbird wrasse seems to be the only overtly intelligent fish in my tank and he learns quickly... but I'm afraid my clown doesn't have enough brain cells to learn from her bad experiences and to cease ... uh ... clowning around.
Has anyone else experienced this sort of behavior in a false perc? Any idea as to what's causing it or how to prevent it?:fish1:
Thanks,