Does your Clown Bite you?

[SurfnFish]

Well, I don't know if this helps, but I stick my net in at the same time as I'm moving things or what-not. Seems to keep her at bay. It makes working in there a little trickier, but I'd rather that than get attacked repeatedly.

[Runfrumu]

My clowns don't but my yellow belly damsel does. Funny thing is, he's not even the dominant fish in the tank. My blue fin damsel is the dominant fish, but he is alot less aggressive now that I have added more fish. Everyone seems to play nice now.

[Dunky019]

I have just recently run into the same issue. My female clown use to eat from my hand (she was so tame I could literally scoop her out of the tank with my hand). Recently, both of them began hosting my colt coral, and now the moment I put my hand in the tank she darts and bites pretty hard (luckily she hasn't broken skin yet).

She no longer eats from my hand, and she also does this thing where she swings her tail in my direction to "swoosh" me away. I find it quite funny.

I also had a bicolour blenny that nipped pretty hard...

[Khaari]

Mine bites as well and is large enough to break skin. It scares me as well as makes me mad. Ive cursed him a thousand times.

[corals b 4 bills]

Ah a subject I'm quite familiar with, My female gold bar maroon clown Has bitten me going on ten years-TEN YEARS! a month ago I had to do some rearranging in the tank and she went at me every chance she got, a couple of days later my wife looked at the back of my arm and saw like twenty scabs on it, to this day we call her the BIG BI*CH, but we could never get rid of her she's just another crazy member of the family.

[flyguy7150]

mine does lol....i was wondering what that little pinch was and i see my OC nipping at me. Its funny though

[HBtank]

My little percula used to. My tomato does not.

[Joe LoPresti]

I have a pretty big female maroon clown and she can be downright nasty. She gets really worked up when I start re-arranging things in the tank. She'll come after my hand and if I have the lid off, she'll splash water in my face!! But I love her to death and wouldn't want her to be any other way, she's got such a personality!!!
I have a pair of false percs in my 30 and the female will also go after my hand if I get too close to "her anemones." The male just runs and hides underneath one, but she's all over me...

[Tommy152]

Yep...mine definately does. I use a net to keep her away while i work on the tank...but he attacks the net now too. He use to just take a swipe and run...but now he grabs hold and thrashes around for a few seconds. One time he made a run for my hand so i pulled my hand out of the tank really quick and the guy actually jumped out of the tank on to the floor. I keep threatening to fry him up...but he still attacks me. This all started after he began hosting in my hammer coral. Good thing is my hammer coral quadrupled in size since then.

[FishAreFriends2]

Originally posted by kaneryles
yes whenever i put my hand in the tank they each grab a hair and pull it

Thats what my tomato did when I had her.

[plyr58]

Mine will bite me until I take my hands out of the tank.

[xtm]

My maroon used to do this.. the first time she did it freaked me out. I dropped a huge acro colony on top of a monti cap and split it in half.. and oh, I burnt my arm when I hit the MH..

[midgetwaiter]

I've seen lots of clowns do this including a tiny little perc who would jump out of the water at your face.

I also have a fire clown named the B*tch. She lived in my community tank where she chased the puffers constantly. She will constantly attack me any time I'm in the tank. I recently tried to pair her with a smaller one in a 20g and she very nearly killed him. I took him out to a hospital tank and was dreading having to tear down the 20 to get her out. Last night I put a syringe in the top of the tank to get testing water and she jumped at me, landing on my desk 3 feet away.

[acrylic_300]

My Maroon female is crazy she bites my hand and also tries to attack peoples faces when they look at the tank too close.

Funniest thing is when my yellow tangs attacked my arm thinking that the arm hair was algae. I glad they learned that it wasn't (very painful).

[ReefGirlSara]

My female ocellaris clown bites me any time she can. She too jumps out of the water chasing my hand if she doesn't get a good bite in. It didn't hurt at first, but now that she's bigger it really does. I use the net-in-the-tank tactic as well, but sometimes I have to catch her to do something in her area of the tank. I'm thinking about getting rid of her...

[dendro982]

Just wait: this beautiful little swine will damage skin.

One day it will jump out of the tank, just to bit me . Tell me about aggressive fish after that! Lion and puffer are angels in comparison!

Video of my aggressor is at my percula page, under negative sides:
http://defineyourreef.freehostia.com...s/percula.html
(The hand is not mine).

So far the way to go - wear gloves, and to do more rough physical work to grow the thicker skin.

[SABOB]

My female Saddleback bit me last week when retrieving a thermometer that came off front glass.Scared the s**t out of me cause I wasn't expecting it.Left a tiny bruise on the pad of my finger

[Sheol]

YESSS!!! Not only that, but the little fiend of an ocellaris goes for the webbing between my fingers, where it HURTS the most.

Matthew

[Melody]

Originally posted by corals b 4 bills
to this day we call her the BIG BI*CH, but we could never get rid of her she's just another crazy member of the family.

Ahhh....your maroon and ours have the same name.

[needlepimp]

http://s8.photobucket.com/albums/a40...t=IMGP0992.flv

[Blown 346]

My perc did this to me as well. Everytime I would put my hand in the tank, the perc would hide and come out of nowhere and bum rush me. Scared the hell out of me everytime since I couldne see where it would come from until I go bit. I moved it to my frag tank and ended that.

[dendro982]

Exactly the same! Only more determined, and tireless - bit all the time during reaquascaping. Other fish would have heart attack after such exercise.

[thrillreefer]

That's a nice collection of hair algae, needlepimp.

Seriously though, I'd rather take a few nips from a clown, no matter how large or relentless, than to go up against just about any puffer or eel. I worked in a SW LFS in highschool, and since I was low man on the totem, I had to clean the tanks with the nasty (in attitude) fish. We had evil pink-tailed trigger that got a taste for human flesh (mine). Bit my arm one day while I was siphoning, and chomped a nice round chunk (1/4-1/2 inch size) out of my forearm and then ate it. Wish I'd taken a picture, but I was too worried about whether I needed stitches or not. Probably should have, but I never did.

And did I learn my lesson then? I did not. Couple of weeks later, feeding the same tank with that pink tail still in there, (s)he chomped my thumb and opened a nice little flap of skin on the tip. So, I'd be thankful that you've all got such friendly clowns that will come over and give a few love nips now and then, 'cause there are definitely bigger fish in the sea with a lot stronger jaws and sharper teeth (or beaks).

[shackscs]

My black clowns have started biting.

[Maika'i]

i was attacked in the wild when i came near the anemone, the female occelaris came out and bit my snorkel