Clown bullying after many years

[qwaz0101]

I have a pair of common clownfish that I've had for over 5 years. They spent 4.5 years in a Red Sea Max 130 and were mostly happy together, in January I upgraded to a Red Sea Max 250 and again they were fine for about 2 months. However the last 6 months the larger clown has none stop been bullying the smaller clown. It literally searches the tank for the small clown and chases it around, the small clown spends all the time in the top corner/bottom corner of the tank or deep behind the live rock but even then it's not safe. It still eats ok but is very washed out and has splits in fins.

I don't understand why after all this time the intense bullying has started, I guess it was the upgrade to the bigger tank but I would have thought that would give them more room. I thought it might stop after a while but it's just getting worse. Tonight it got so bad I have caught the bully in a net and left him in the tank to give the small fish a break but this isn't going to work long term.

Any ideas what I can do long term apart from give away the bully? Rearranging the tank isn't an option. The tank is lightly stocked, would adding more fish or even another clown distract it a bit more? I also have a small 15ltr tank I was thinking of setting up and moving the aggressive clown to for a couple of weeks, would that work?

 

[DaveK]

What your most likely seeing is that the fish are now mature and territorial. It's unlikely the fish will reform. I think this is a case where you are going to have to choose which clown you want, and remove the other.

You can try all the other stuff you mentioned, but it's not likely to work. Still it's worth the try.

 

[qwaz0101]

What your most likely seeing is that the fish are now mature and territorial. It's unlikely the fish will reform. I think this is a case where you are going to have to choose which clown you want, and remove the other.

You can try all the other stuff you mentioned, but it's not likely to work. Still it's worth the try.

Thanks for your reply Dave. I thought a pair of small Clowns naturally turned into a male/female pair and would be happy. Is it just a case of the female doesn't like/fancy the male?

 

[Oxylebius]

Agree with Dave here. It sounds like you are only going to be able to keep one of the clowns. If you leave the little one in there, you may be sentencing it to death b/c the larger one sounds like it is out to get the little one. Unfortunately pairs don't always stay as a pair. Or perhaps they never really bonded but instead tolerated each other in the other tank and now in a new tank the fish are establishing new territory and it sounds like the larger one will not tolerate the smaller one. It is unfortunate.