Clowns harassing flame angel

[dickhordishay]

I just introduced the flame angel to the main tank yesterday. At first he was hanging out at the far right side of the tank where nobody else hangs out. He was swimming around and whatever.

Now, mind you, the clowns never, ever go up to that side of the tank. They are always hanging out on the left-side.

Suddenly, they're hanging out where the flame is.

Today, the poor flame is hiding in a crevice, and the clowns are just hanging around the area, not allowing him to leave. Plus I saw them getting aggressive with him.

What gives? They have taken to every fish (except the wrasse when he goes into their "territory") except this one. They are actually going way out of their way.

Is it because of his red color and they're orange? I thought these fish were compatible.

[snorvich]

Clowns in a smallish tank, once sexually mature, are very territorial. This is not normally a function of what fish is introduced.

[dickhordishay]

Thanks for the reply.
What's odd, though, is that the clowns aren't even defending their territory, they're going on the opposite side of the tank to look for this dude. They've been hanging by his crevice all day. Poor guy can't leave!

They seem to have an odd fascination with only this fish and have never reacted to any other fish like this.

[Toddrtrex]

Same thing happened when I added a small Potter's angel to one of my tanks. The tank had an existing Potter's, who really didn't care about the new guy. Now, my mated pair of Pink Skunks on the other hand... Things have calmed down now, but they will still chase it once an a while, and are swimming all over the tank now. They used to pretty much stay within inches of their Haddoni. And mind you, pink skunks are "suppose" to be one of the more peaceful clowns.

[LargeAngels]

Like snorvich stated they can be very territorial. And also selective about who they pick on. My female GSM hated my emperor. She was 4" and he/she was 8", but the GSM won everytime. My chrysopterus female doesn't like my chrysurus nor any butterfly, but doesn't care about any dwarf angels or other angels or wrasses. It's almost like the cartoons when the bull sees red.

[dickhordishay]

Well it looks like the clowns may have harassed the flame to death :(

I haven't seen the little bugger in a couple of days now.

[missippboy]

My flame and clowns get along just fine.. If you want, next time you can try and submerge the fish in something like this (http://youraquariumcenter.com/library/BBT3Glamour.jpg) to see if the clowns will try to attack it.

[tewkes]

My clowns are dirty bassturds! It doesn't matter what I add, they'll bother the crap out of it for at least an hour.

Last night I added a supermale flamme wrasse and the female clown went after him for a few minutes, even biting at it. I'm very close to banishing them from my tank. Among harassment to other fish they bite my hand anytime I go in the tank. The tank isn't exactly supersmall, it's a 150 gallon cube.

[snorvich]

Baby clowns are not an issue. Sexually mature clowns, especially once they begin mating, are a pain.