clown bully

[tophoo]

I used to have a pair of oc clowns until one dies somehow.  I decided to pick up a black and white one as his replacement.

The first couple of days went well.  They were playing very nicely with each other, until all went to hell!  The new guy has decided to bully the crap out of the older smaller guy where the poor little guy has to hide in caves and stuff.

Is this normal behavior?  I'd hate to be a witness of domestic abuse

[bt]

Sounds pretty typical for clowns.  Different types often don't get along with each other.

[tophoo]

but they are both Ocellaris, just different colour

[bt]

Darwins are just different enough that they can cause problems when put in with a standard Ocellaris.

Another possibility is that they're both females.  That will also cause serious problems, same type or not.

It could be just a phase while the larger one establishes dominance, too.

Or the new one is just a jerk.

[Greatwhite]

Clowns should usually only be added at the same time...  They will fight over who is the female until the loser is forced to be the male.  I suspect the smaller one really doesn't want to fight so is hiding instead.

This is exactly the reason I'll never get a divorce - I don't ever want to have to go through the battles again!

[HappyGuppy]

My female seems to enjoy putting the male in his place regularly.

[kole18]

I have a small wild true perc or  maybe an onyx, a few months ago I've lost the female perc & bought a new 1 but this is a semi picasso as soon as I added into my tank male was chasing a bit a few mins male hosted the rbta female dive into that's how both meet up =)

[tophoo]

UPDATE

The black and white guy is still bullying the others guy to the point where it is now hiding in the top corner next to a powerhead.  Now the smaller oc. is fading in colour.

What does this mean??

[brotherluv]

My guess is it's getting sick from being stressed...perhaps he's not eating properly because of stress.

[Hookup]

you need one of these!

http://www.wickedlasers.com/lasers/S3_Krypton_Series-113-63.html

zap him a few times... he'll behave or cook.... bwahahaha

[gvv]

My guess is it's getting sick from being stressed...perhaps he's not eating properly because of stress.

Agree. This may end very bad ...