Clown teasing Gramma

[Mihai]

This evening a most unusual thing happened: my male clowns
(A. ocellaris) started bothering my Royal Gramma (G. loretto). It was
getting close to the gramma, then went vertical (head down) with the
side toward the gramma and started vibrating. Apparently this is a
terrible insult for grammas because it promptly opened a large mouth and
seemed to take a bite off the clown. The clown never ran away. Actually
it kept coming back and doing this at least 20-30 times.

The male clown has a nice female (I think she's pretty) - why the
gramma (assuming that the clown wanted sex)? Also, although it seemed
that the gramma was very aggressive the clown didn't seem hurt.

I don't know what to make of it, if there is anything I should (or
can) do.

Any ideas are appreciated,
Mihai

 

[dodo99]

My female clown does that as well. I was surprised how big a gramma's mouth can be. :!:


DoDo

 

[CC-Star]

Oh my those are crazy pictures, really captured what you were talking about w. no exaggeration. Whoa! Hmm my Percula clowns seem to co-exist w. my Royal Gramma just peachy. The 2 percula clowns mind you somtimes nip at each other but most of the time swim everywhere together/sleep together. Strange.....violent for the Gramma, mine just hides from anything (mostly due to my mean Yellow Tang).

 

[Anonymous]

Could it be a sign of aggression...

 

[Anonymous]

I certainly wouldn't worry about it long term, sounds like the G. loreto invaded the A. ocellaris space or vice versa. Just think of it as somebody waking up grumpy. Spats tend to happen in our smaller tanks and neither fish is considered a total saint as far as being peaceful. You may have to rearrange some rock work if the aggression continues though.

Regards,
David Mohr

 

[danimal]

Nice pics! Could you tell me what the yellow columns are? I saw them in the LFS this weekend, but I was on a hardware hunt and did not get a chance to ask.

They dominated some of the display tanks with their bright colors.

BTW Good luck with the fishies- I hope they will be able to work it out.

 

[Mihai]

Could it be a sign of aggression...

You think?!! :wink:

Could you tell me what the yellow columns are?

It's a sponge. I like it too, and I'm glad that it seems to do well (I had it for 3mo now).

Sounds like the G. loreto invaded the A. ocellaris space or vice versa

The clown was in grammas' corner, but it wasn't the first time there. Perhaps just grumpy (the hopeful version), or the gramma just grew up (it did quite a bit in the last months) and decided to have a corner for itself.

.violent for the Gramma, mine just hides from anything (mostly due to my mean Yellow Tang)

The funny thing is that my gramma used to hide too from my yellow tang. Not so much lately though. The thing is that the gramma was hidden in the rock, the clown came to its corner and did the move. The gramma then got out of the rock to chase him away.

I'll keep an eye out and post the results.

Regards,
Mihai

 

[dodo99]

It looks to me like they're showing off more than anything else. Like body-builders flexing in front of a mirror or sumtin'... Come feeding time, they don't mind each other's company.

DoDo