clownfish tail nipped by what?

[treesprite]

My female clown has nips out of her tail, but I can't imagine what would be able to nip her tail like that - there's just the little male clown and the little fridmani dottyback.

 

It's not frayed, and there's nothing else out of the ordinary. There isn't any kind of illness that makes the tail look chomped rather than frayed as far as I know, or am I wrong?

 

The dottyback does steal food sticking out of the female clown's mouth, so it's clearly a very bold fish, but it's hard to imagine it chasing and actually taking big nips out of the tail of a very large tomato clown (but leaving the male alone). Fridmanis are supposed to be the acception to the dottyback aggressiveness rule, unless defending territory. I moved the rock around again a few days ago - can't remember if the first nip was seen before or after that (not moving it around again - finally looks at least half decent).

[akbuuur]

i hade one before and they can be very agressive at times- how big of a tank do you have? do you have any crabs? Sally light foots can be very agressive

Akbar

[treesprite]

i hade one before and they can be very agressive at times- how big of a tank do you have? do you have any crabs? Sally light foots can be very agressive

Akbar

 

Only crabs are small hermits and a couple emeralds.

[st9z]

maybe its the male nipping at her. Mine does it all the time.

[treesprite]

maybe its the male nipping at her. Mine does it all the time.

 

He's never done it before, but I guess there's always a first time. I'll have to try to get more info on that type of behavior.

[Sugar Magnolia]

My fridmani dottyback leaves my clown alone, but chases my female blue damsel whenever it gets a chance. The damsel so far has been to quick for the dottyback to catch. When I transferred my yasha haze goby from my 2.5g into my cube, the dottyback harrassed the yasha for a couple of days and nipped it's high fin down to about half it's height. It has since grown back, and the dottyback doesn't bother it anymore. Not saying yours is the guilty party, just sharng my expperience with mine.

Edited October 23, 2007 by Sugar Magnolia

[treesprite]

clown's tail is all healed and back to normal now. I'm going to have to keep an eye out for new nips.

 

When I first put the dotty in the tank, the damsel I had, had the dotty's tail almost gone in a few hours. That damsel jumped ship while it was in qt waiting for me to put together a nano for it :( I was really attached to that damsel.