Female Clown Killed Male

[Katrina71]

I went to a large clown breeder locally. Thousands of clowns. All of the females were paired with very very small males. It shocked me how small of a mate the females chose. I'm sorry for the loss of your fish.

 

[whaleydavey]

But even after being paired for 10 straight months? Will she do it again if I bring in a new clown into the tank?

Was the male more aggressively eating?
I just put in a tiny male half the size of the clown already in the tank. Unfortunately the smaller fish is super fast and gets a lit of the food. He used to be 50% the length of the female. Now 4 months later he is 85% the length of the female. And she is starting to show aggressive tendencies like nipping him on the side and shoving him every minute or two. I think if he gets past the 93% length of the female, she will kill him.

 

[Largeangels]

Even clowns that have been together for years can turn on each other. Not often IME, but it can happen.

I had that with a larger pair of Allardi. Been together for years and after they started laying eggs for some reason the male beat the tar out of the female. Had to split them up.