Quick Question

[Cubed]

We all hate to loose fish, including me. I've had a 55 FO tank set up for around 6 months now and this is the first time I have had a problem.

Currently in the tank is:

Foxface
Yellow Tang
Six Lined Wrasse
2x Captive Raised Clowns
Coral Beauty
Copperband Butterfly
Yellow Watchman Goby

The story, two days ago I purchased a Firefish, the common one (white and red/orange), the first and second day we had him the fish was doing great, swimming around, no problems with any other fish. Today, it was attacked by both clowns, leading to its death.

The one clown (female) is about 1.75" in length and has been in the tank since the begining. The other, the male, is about 1.25" in length and is about two months old. They are a pair.

It started after feeding time when the female clown about 30 min after feeding began attacking the firefish. 20 min later the other clown joined in and they bit pummuled the little guy to death. The firefish was helpless.

My question is, what could have caused this? I've never seen clowns act this way, and have known them to be docile fish, as well as the firefish. My other question is, since the firefish is part of the goby family, how come the clowns don't go after the yellow watchman as well?

Thanks for the help.

[Mentat]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15224782#post15224782 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Cubed
...It started after feeding time when the female clown about 30 min after feeding began attacking the firefish. 20 min later the other clown joined in and they bit pummuled the little guy to death. The firefish was helpless... My question is, what could have caused this?
I'm confused, you watched the slaughter without intervening, but are interested in knowing what caused it?
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15224782#post15224782 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Cubed
..I've never seen clowns act this way, and have known them to be docile fish...
Clowns act that way, some of them are deadly aggressive to peaceful fish, specially newcomers introduced after them.

[Cubed]

I had no chance to anything. I have nothing to put the fish in, i.e. QT tank. I left out of the room when the clown was aggravating him being as I thought the clown was being territorial. I came back in and saw the end of it.

I was unaware Clowns acted that way, as this was my first encounter, and my first knowledge of this.

[unleashed13]

clowns can be very territorial and you have a pair.. what type of clowns are they?

[Cubed]

Both are tank raised Ocellaris's, although male has thicker black stripes then the female.

[barbianj]

My question is, what could have caused this?

You added a new fish to a well stocked, established tank. Like Mentat said, clownfish can be extremely aggressive to newcomers. They figured they could put the smack-down on your little Firefish, and they did. It's easy to say that you should get a bigger tank, but you have a good amount of fish in there as it is, depending on their size, of course. Sorry you lost the fish, though.

[Cubed]

Yeah, it came to me as surprise, and I was actually shocked. Being rather new to the hobby (8 mos.) I guess you learn from your mistakes.

As far as the size of the fish, the tank has a lot of swimming room, and the largest of the fish is the Y. Tang which is only around 3.5" in length. The Foxface is the same size, and the Copperband is a little shorter. All the fish get along great and I haven't had any issues before this. All water params are in check, with Amon, Nitri, and Nitrates @ 0. However, the tank is going to be upgraded once the 180 is up and running.

I was just taken back by the whole thing, as I had never seen clowns act in that manner.

Thanks.