It's been a while since I've been on the forum. Work's really picked up, so I haven't done a whole lot other than... work. Story time!
I've had two clowns in my 135 since I started it a year ago. One of the clowns is my first saltwater fish from about 4 years ago, and the other was added about 9 months ago. The big female was a crazy b*tch to my porcupine puffer and the other fish in the tank in general. She was always nipping at the puffer's raggedy tail and freaking him out daily. She also seemed to heard the juvenile to the very top, back, center of the tank right at the water line making him the most boring fish in the entire world. His entire life existed within about 10 gallons of the entire tank. It was really getting on my nerves.
So about 3 weeks ago the juvenile clown disappeared. No sign of a corpse anywhere outside of the tank, no sign in the sump, and no bones anywhere. I assumed it was my massive green brittle star (now in the sump) at the time. The female got even more aggressive.
Fast forward to last night when I decided the female was a too much of a pain and swapped her out for two juveniles I have at work. No one was acting overly aggressive to the newcomers, but I did notice that one seemed to go into hiding really early in the night. This afternoon I still only saw one clown... Then I saw Dexter (the puffer) swimming full speed toward the remaining juvenile gulping down air when he would lunge for the fish.
It turns out the larger female had been protecting her mate the entire time, and my puffer was the instigator (and eventual murderer). Go figure. He's still the bomb, and fits his name so well.
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I've had two clowns in my 135 since I started it a year ago. One of the clowns is my first saltwater fish from about 4 years ago, and the other was added about 9 months ago. The big female was a crazy b*tch to my porcupine puffer and the other fish in the tank in general. She was always nipping at the puffer's raggedy tail and freaking him out daily. She also seemed to heard the juvenile to the very top, back, center of the tank right at the water line making him the most boring fish in the entire world. His entire life existed within about 10 gallons of the entire tank. It was really getting on my nerves.
So about 3 weeks ago the juvenile clown disappeared. No sign of a corpse anywhere outside of the tank, no sign in the sump, and no bones anywhere. I assumed it was my massive green brittle star (now in the sump) at the time. The female got even more aggressive.
Fast forward to last night when I decided the female was a too much of a pain and swapped her out for two juveniles I have at work. No one was acting overly aggressive to the newcomers, but I did notice that one seemed to go into hiding really early in the night. This afternoon I still only saw one clown... Then I saw Dexter (the puffer) swimming full speed toward the remaining juvenile gulping down air when he would lunge for the fish.
It turns out the larger female had been protecting her mate the entire time, and my puffer was the instigator (and eventual murderer). Go figure. He's still the bomb, and fits his name so well.