Tankmate for Territorial Clownfish

rantipole · Sep 15, 2021

I have had my 13.5 gallon Fluval Evo AIO for about 4.5 years. I've had a pair of occelaris clowns since starting the tank. Recently, the large (almost 4 inches) female started bullying the male and, I think due to the bullying, he jumped out of the tank. I recently added a small clown and the female beat him up bad. I separated them for a day and then reintroduced him. It seemed to go ok, but I think her presence was too stressful for the little one. He didn't eat for four days and today he was dead.

I'm not sure what to do going forward. Do I add another clown? Are there other fish that would work with this size tank and the aggressiveness of this female? Should she just be the lone fish in the tank (my least preferred option)? Any advice is welcome.

Cheers,oce
rant

LordofCinder · Sep 15, 2021

IMO the tank is too small for 2 adult clowns. I might suggest a neon goby, cleaner fish are often spared from normal aggression.

TriggersAmuck · Sep 15, 2021

I second the gobies....Look at my build thread, as I have a large female Fire Clown with roughly 10 tiny gobies, and she doesn't pay them any attention. Prior to my 20g cube these were all in a 14g cube, about the same size as yours.

rantipole · Sep 16, 2021

Thanks. I will look into the gobies. Much appreciated.

Cheers,
rant

rantipole · Sep 21, 2021

Instead of a neon goby, what about a Rainford's goby? I like those a lot.

Moving off the gobies, my assumption is that an orchid dottyback would also be too territorial for this tank. Is that correct?

Cheers,
rant

TriggersAmuck · Sep 22, 2021

I love Rainfordis, but be aware that like the dottybacks, they are more of a middle water swimmer, putting them in more "competition" with an aggressive clown. I think the reason that most of the tiny gobies do so well with my hostile Fire Clown is because they are (neon aside) all bottom denizens and pretty much stay out of his way (or vice versa).

I think you might mean "Purple Dottyback" instead of "orchid"? The Purple one is notoriously aggressive (just the perfect tank mate for a bigger clown), while the Orchid is known to be quite a bit calmer, almost like a Royal Gramma. I have only kept the Purple before, and just know, they got teeth, both literally and metaphorically.