Clowns have turned nasty

[lee_d_m]

Hi,

I have a pair of tank-raised false percs. had them for about 5 months now and they have been fine together.

However, today, the smaller one of the two has started to become aggressive towards the other one. Then tonight, at lights off, they had a massive fight.

As of now, the aggressive one is sleeping in their normal spot, the other one is sleeping under a rock, they have never slept apart before so something is obviously wrong.

Any advice on what I should do ?

Thanks

Lee

[vester_72]

Were they babies and the same size when you aquired them?

I do not know a lot about clowns, but I do believe that juveniles adult sex is TBD. When you have a pair, they will need to determine dominance. That dominant clown will then become a female and grow larger than the male.

Perhaps one clown is becoming the dominant fish - this can cause some fighting for a little while.

I am no expert - anyone else have any thoughts?

[lee_d_m]

Hi,

Yes, they were both small when I added them, about 3/4" One was slightly bigger than the other.

The slightly bigger one is now about 1 1/2" and the other is about 1".

The thing I don't understand is, I always thought the bigger one (the female) to be the aggressor, but in this case, the smaller guy is the aggressor, the bigger one just tries to hide and does the clown submissive shake thing, the smaller one used to do this all the time.

Very strange (and a tad worrying too)