Tank of bullies

[emozoo]

Hello All,

Have an interesting one. I have had my tank for about 8 months and its been a really fun journey. I have 2 clowns and a dotty back right now, and I wanted to add a 6 line wrasse. I went out, found one at my LFS, acclimated and then I introduced it to the tank with the lights off. Both the clowns and the dotty back attacked this wrasse and it was dead within an hour. I really don't know how I developed a tank full of murderers but the three of them role as a group in the tank and just bulldoze any new fish. It's almost like the clowns follow suite of the dotty back.

Really odd behavior I would say, or maybe its not. It's a 32g tank.

Any experience? Am I stuck with just these three and thats it unless I get rid of the dottyback?

 

[Bacon and Eggs]

Probably, I’m sure these aren’t full grown either. All are known to be potentially aggressive. Might need to change your strategy and/or get a bigger tank if feasible. You could try getting rid of the DB, getting something else, rearrange the tank at their introduction with the clowns. Maybe put 2 more small peaceful ones in. I don’t know.

 

[Dread Pirate Dave]

Tank size and fish order make a difference. I suspect had you added all of them at the same time, including the wrasse, you would have been fine. (or the wrasse would have killed the dottyback down the road)

The clown pairs also seem to cause problems in smaller tanks when they claim the entire tank as theirs.