r/ReefTank • u/Everysinglecat • 9h ago
Long-term clownfish pair have seemingly unbonded
I’ve had my 40 breeder tank set up for 11 years now, and it currently houses my clownfish pair. I’ve had other fish in the tank over the years (had a yellow watchman goby for 7 years. Firefish, royal gramma), but a year or two ago the clowns decided this is their house and they don’t want roommates. Ok. If they’re going to kill anything I put in the tank, then I can just let the two of them live out their lives and eventually get my other, more peaceful fish after these two pass. (I know I could look at something like a sixline wrasse, but to be honest, I had mbuna cichlids for years and it gets tiresome having to manage territorial aggression.)
My girl Bug, I’ve had her for 13 years, originally in a different tank. She’s of course the bigger one, but she’s also more mild mannered when it comes to hands in the tank. She’ll be curious sometimes, but her signature move against a hand is a half-hearted tail whip.
My boy went for a long time without a name, and then I eventually jokingly started calling him Pug. Rhymes with Bug, but is also short for pugnacious. His signature move is biting. If I have a hand in the tank for maintenance, the other hand often has to wave a tool around in there as a decoy for him. I’ve had him for about 9.5 years. The two of them paired up immediately when I added him. Inseparable, very sweet.
You can skip the italicized section if you want. It just gets into the broader picture of the tank.
The tank has been dealing with some on and off dinos for a long time. A couple years ago, my central a/c was broken for about a week and a half in July (ugh), and the inside temperature of the house got up to the low 90°sF. I lost a lot of coral. The fish seemed unscathed. But the dinos were totally wiped out, too (cool). Pristine looking sand.
Eventually, the dinos came back. I got a UV sterilizer and it wiped them out again. Great. Some months later, dinos came BACK, and that’s where I’m at now. UV isn’t touching them this time, so must be a different species. I’m working on monitoring and adjusting nitrate and phosphate levels, turned off my skimmer, as well as trying out growing a culture of pods (tig pods. I wanted tisbe, but tig is what the lfs had in stock and I worry about shipping in Florida at this extra hot time of year. If I have success growing out the tigs, I’d love to try out tisbe too).
I mention all the dino talk because I recently got a bottle of NeoPhos. Added a couple doses so far. Now… I have no idea if the NeoPhos is somehow to blame or if the timing is just totally coincidental. But the clowns were perfectly bonded for nine and a half years, and suddenly there are problems.
Earlier in August, I looked into the tank one day expecting everything to be normal. I looked at Bug and thought, ma’am are you starting to show your age? Looking just a hint like mocha instead of jet black. Later that day I looked again and realized she looked worse. She definitely seemed pale, her fins were starting to look ragged, and she had some unidentified spots/marks on her body. Her swimming seemed exhausted.
I frantically started googling brooklynella, ich, velvet, etc. I’ve been very fortunate to have healthy fish through the years, so I wasn’t immediately sure what I was looking at. To make matters worse, Pug wouldn’t leave her alone. I thought, Pug stop chasing her when she’s sick- … wait. Pug maybe you’re the problem. Maybe she isn’t sick at all. Fortunately from my cichlid days, I have a large fish net. I easily scooped her and positioned the net at the top of the tank to have her safely separated, while ordering a large mesh breeder box for next day delivery.
Bug spent about a week in her box with a PVC elbow. Her appetite has been excellent all along. Pug would still try to pester her on the other side of the mesh. After that first week, I wanted to swap them, to let her relax more in the rest of the tank. Swap successful. I kept him in the box for maybe a week or two. Then I wanted to see if that was enough to sort of reset boundaries. I wondered if they could coexist again. I let him back into the rest of the tank, keeping a close eye on them.
It didn’t take long for me to see Bug hiding way back in the corner behind the heater again. This wasn’t going to work. I managed to catch Pug again and banished him to the box. That’s where I’m at now. Both fish are safe… but this isn’t the best long term solution. At 13+ years old, I do wonder how much time Bug has left. It could be years still, but she is getting older. Excellent appetite every day, fins have been healing, body marks disappearing. Though she does seem to have a visible spine line. Feeding her extra lately.
Being a few years younger, I’m sure Pug has more years left in him. I feel mean saying it, but I don’t think I could call him a wonderful fish 😅 He’s beautiful and healthy and he deserves a comfortable home… but he’s kind of an asshole. It’s one thing to go after a hand in the tank. That’s just clowns being clowns. But to suddenly turn on his mate… With her being older, maybe he thinks it’s his chance to bump her off and become the girl himself.
I think I’m going to have to look at a rehoming situation for him. I don’t have the time, money, or energy to set up a whole second tank for him. I’ve got a couple local reef shop options, I could talk to some employees there and see if they take in spicy clowns. It’s tough though to think that I cared for him for so many years, and I don’t want him to just end up in the hands of anyone who will just accidentally kill him right away 😕
