Clown problem

[RichG]

I inherited a couple of percs about 5 years ago from a friend who was closing his system down. They had been in his tank for a couple of years so agewise they are probably about 8ish. One was slightly larger than the other and they seemed to get on together quite well.

The smaller one has grown considerably in the last year and is now about one quarter larger than the other. Things were fine between them until about a week ago. The now smaller one has taken to hiding away in a corner of the tank behind the rock, i assumed that it was a health issue until i saw the now larger clown attacking it, holding its tail and swinging it backwards and forwards.

the problem i have is that due to the age of them i had assumed that the original larger one would be the female, now that this one has been outgrown by the second does that mean that this one has become the dominant female and that it will kill the other. I have read that they cant change back from female to male.

I presume the only way forward it to remove the smaller one to a separate tank. Or could it be that neither matured until now ???

Cheers

Rich.

[Kraken]

The same thing has happened in my tank.One day they are fine sharing the anenome and shaking their bodies back to back.Over the past week the larger Clown chases the smaller one away which hides in the corner of the tank.

[RichG]

I lost the clown that was originally the larger one. Bought a small clown from the LFS and after a lot of chasing/fighting for a few days things have settled down and both clowns seem happy and hang out together.

Rich.

[Kraken]

The larger Clown keeps driving the smaller one away from the Anenome.The smaller one hides away in the rocks and obviously shows his face when grubs up...bless him.
Anyone know why this is happening?

Sad to hear you lost your Clown Rich.