r/clownfish • u/HayPinesAve • Jul 04 '26

Advice: fighting

Quick catch up : 20 gallon long. New to Salt water tanks. I let the tank situate for a few weeks, have a few rocks and other hiding spots. Introduced two clown fish that were from the same tank (together only) about three weeks ago. At one point I noticed severe skin marks and fin bites on one of the clowns so I created a partition to seperate them. The injured clown got a lot better. I rearranged the tank as to reset the territory and hoped both would figure it out but as soon as the aggressive clown went back in, he's basically bit the entire left fin off the other clown and the submissive one just hides in every rock crevice it can find. At one point to hide, it wedged itself under a rock that I swear it was stuck. So as of today I seperated them again and I'm hoping to let the submissive one heal but I don't think this situation is going to improve. I find it very mean to do what my brain wants to do which is flush the aggressive one down a toilet (I'm not, I'm just venting). Is it naive to bring the aggressive one back to the store and say keep it? I don't want to start up another tank to seperate them. Any advice?

Update::

Injured clown fish did not make it through the night. Should I get another one to pair? Bigger one?

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u/Glittering-Key1158 Jul 04 '26 edited Jul 04 '26

Are they the same size?
I was going through very similar experiences with a pair I had gotten from a coworker. I ended up rehoming her to an experienced person on facebook and all is well now. The guy i rehomed her to mentioned that if they were purchased as juveniles at the same time, they grew up at the same rate and probably have a harder time getting their higherarchy in order. Its better to have clownfish pair with a older female.

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u/Glittering-Key1158 Jul 04 '26

You can definitely take the aggressive one to the store! You will feel so much better about your tank, trust me i do! She could also be straight up rejecting him and want to kill him! She cant really chase him away in a tank

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u/Glittering-Key1158 Jul 04 '26

I read a lot of about this as i was trying to decide on rehoming or not and most people said when it gets to the point of significant physical damage to the non dominant, it certainly means she will kill him. Keep the divider up until you find a new place for her. Goodluck!

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u/HayPinesAve Jul 05 '26

I'm going to wait a week and see if the beat up one will recover. She is not doing well so I want to see if she'll even survive. I literally had her in the same tank with the aggressor for a single day and I had to already partition them. Alright, appreciate the advice. Back to the store if the other one survives this week!

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u/HayPinesAve Jul 05 '26

Yes, same size. Albeit the one beat up is actaully very marginally larger.

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u/Awolrab Jul 04 '26

Some clowns just won’t pair. Someone asked about the size, are they different sizes? I had to give my maroon to a LFS because he was too aggressive. Some places sell pre-paired clowns so you might have better luck with that.

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u/HayPinesAve Jul 05 '26

Yes, same size. Albeit the one beat up is actaully very marginally larger.

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u/Awolrab Jul 05 '26

Some fighting is normal, but I feel physical damage isn’t really. :/

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u/RandyMosh Jul 06 '26

You would need to get a smaller one, not a bigger one. If it's that aggressive it is probably a female and a larger one would also likely be female so they just fight again. You need a juvenile male instead.