Percula Clown Fight

[Milan'22]

I have 2 percula Clowns, both a bit over 2" with one slightly larger.
I've had them for about 2 and half weeks and during this time they never bothered/bothered by anyone. One seemed to be more dominant, and would swim all around the tank, while the other would move around less, but they looked fine and ate well.
Recently, though, the larger one seems to be tackling the smaller one which is now losing colour (becoming grayish) and its fins are becoming frayed. This mostly happens during feed, one time he even appears to bite the side fin. At other times the smaller will float close to the glass by itself, and the othe will come up to it and they both appear to be vibrating. The smaller one looked pretty bad so I brought it to the lfs where we asked if it was a parasite and what we should do. A few people disagreed and said one is establishing its dominance and they could be mating.
This seems logical but the smaller clown looks pretty bad, and the larger is only getting more agressive.
What do you think?

ps if you want, i could post a pic.

[trashion]

Mm, I've heard you should really only keep 1 percula per tank, or a mated pair. Then again, I'm not too experienced in saltwater. But that's what I've read.

[Scuba Kid]

Thats not really true, and usually if you have two in a tank, they will change sexes to form a pair anyway.

The larger and more dominant is probably the dominant female the she could be battering the smaller male. I'm not sure why you would ever suspect a parasitic infection....

A pic could show how bad this is, but what would be helpful is a video of the aggression taking place.

[Fishfirst]

Actually if you can seperate them with the less dominate one in a "cage" type contraption made of say a strawberry container or something similar to that and float it where they usually hang out, it will allow them to continue courting and allow him to heal up and destress. This way when he's all healed up he has a better chance to take her "beating"

[trashion]

Oops. Yeah, I won't be saying anything about saltwater any more...*tiptoes away*

[darkjedv]

I had the same thing happen in my tank. The end result was the one percula being stressed to the point of getting multiple illnesses and dying from a swim bladder issue rather then getting "beat up" by the other. If you want to pair clowns in a tank you should introduce them together and make sure the one is a bit larger then the other. If not, your going to get this type of fighting and shaking while they determine who will win out and become the female which will be the larger of the two. The one clown might also be establishing its territory. In my opinion you should take the one that is stressed and place him in your quarantine tank for a few weeks or until he gets better. Meanwhile what will happen is the other in the show tank will grow larger and when you reintroduce the smaller one there will be the set male/female status and less issues. One thing also to remember is that clown fish don't need to be paired...they won't be "lonely" if they aren't kept in pairs. My clown I have went from being a mean fish to a playful one who seems a lot happier the other one is gone.

Thanks,

Jed