[bongobrian]

Have you guys ever been attacked by one of your fish when you put your hand in your tank? yesterday I was just moving some things around in my tank and my maroon clown, as fearless as he is, charged at my hand and rammed his head right into my hand. He hit my hand so hard it left a big red mark, it actually hurt a little! I'm surprised the clown didn't knock himself unconscious. Anyway, I've always been able to feed the clown right from my hand. I think he's gotton so comfortable with it, he is no longer afraid of my hand when I put it into the tank. Anyway, thought this was kinda funny and a little weird.

[Northman_with_reef]

I have an Oscar who tries to swallow my finger every time I put my hand in the tank.......It hurts....

[eses]

My percula clown attacks everytime I put my hand in the tank, it is annoying as it doesn't draw blood or anything, but it hurts. Little pinches. It also rams my hand over and over, which is a pain when I am trying to feed my eel.

My eel has bitten me several times, it is a snowflake so none of them have been bad. One time he got ahold of my pinky finger, and was trying to swallow it. Between trying to remove him, and him trying to eat me I ended up with a pretty scratched up finger and part of my fingernail was broken. Very minor compared to what some of the other species of moray can do.

I have tried bringing "the fear of the hand" back into my clowns life, but it doesn't work. I have chased him around, flicked him with my finger, and even grabbed him once when he tried biting and it didn't solve anything. I wear plasic gloves now when feeding.

[Reinhold]

When I had a fish only tank, I used to get bit by both a Picasso Triggerfish and a Dog Faced Pufferfish. Both have coral-crunching beaks, and though blood was never drawn, they did pinch pretty good.

[RobG]

My female maroon nips me every time I go near her anemone EXCEPT when I am feeding the anemone. If I have a chunck of squid, silverside etc... she lets me feed it in peace.

Not nearly as bad as my African cichlids though -- I can barely even reach in to rearrange rocks without being attacked.

[DEE]

My maroon clown attacks me every time I put my hand in the tank. As soon as I open the lid he there waitng to attack. He doesn't hurt just kinda startles you a little.


~ DEE~

[obring]

"Horny", my Horned Cowfish, chases me around...but one day i told her that if she bit me... it will be the toilet bowl for her...and she leaves me alone since... little doesshe know I couldnt do that without cloggin thewtank.....

[bongobrian]

RobG- how do you tell if a maroon clown is male or female? I never even bothered to figure out what mine is.

[RobG]

I don't know how to determine the sex of a single specimen.

I have a mated pair -- the female is about twice the size of the male and bosses him around all day

I believe if you put two juvenile clownfishes together, the more dominant one will become female. Don't quote me on that -- I just got Clownfishes by Wilkerson and haven't had the chance to read it yet.

Rob

[VAFLYER]

Hey Brian, RobG, to answer your question a single specimen will grow into a female, Rob you are correct when a mated pair grow up together the dominant of the two will become a female while the less dominant will remain a male. This info was in Wilkersons Clownfish book, I just recently read it, it has tons of info on clowns. I have a pair of maroons I bought as juveniles, tank raised in fact I wouldn't be surprised if they came from Wilkerson. Both were only 3/4 of an inch last year when I bought them, now, the male is just over an inch where as the female has doubled the male at about 2 inches.

[organicreefer]

ive been attacked by quite a few fish in my time,but nothing can compare to the "slashing" i got from my tang when i was switching tanks a few weeks ago.most of the time i dont like to catch fish with a net if i can avoid it ,so i lowered the water level and caught every fish ,but as soon as i got the tang cornered he sorta went sideways and slashed me with his fin and swam away it was pretty deep and bled for about ten minutes.
i found out first hand why they are called surgeons or scalpel fish
now when im in the tank aquascaping ,if i try to pet him he swims at me upwards/backwards just daring me ,and i pull away everytime.looks like we both learned a lesson eh

[Reinhold]

In my fish-only days, I had two tangs who continually battled and slashed each other. Fearing that they would kill each other, I netted them both and cut off their "tangs" at the base of the tail with a surgical scissor.

They continued to try to thrash each other, but wound up giving up when they were unable to inflict anything more than a massage on each other.

[organicreefer]

reinhold,ive never heard of anyone cutting off their spines(whatever you call em )?it didnt affect their swimming?better not let the "tang police" get hold of this story ,theyll string you up
ive been bit by oscars,green terrors dempseys pacus-you name it BIG fish,nothing anywhere close to the tang.he %$#@%@ me up.

[Firefish]

I introduced my new Pink Tail Trigger 2 weeks ago to it's new home. This fella has no fear about human fingers! I was pinching some freeze dried jumbo shrimp between my fingers and my head was turned watching TV, that was untill I felt a sharp (hampster) bite on my finger. Scared the sh!t out of me! He was tearing that shrimp apart! Now I just hang it at the surface and he grabs it, it makes a "snap" sound when he grabs it from the surface of the water. I've also caught him bringing my snails and hermits to the surface and dropping them on the rock Iv'e been tring to snap a pic of him doing it.

[canuckreef]

well one day i was just fixing something in the tank..and bamm... i felt something... thought i had bumped up against the rock or something hard... but bamm again.. !!

I looked in...and there was my smallest fish...Squirt.... a bicolour blenny...attacking the hand that feeds him...!! he sure is fearless..and as the smallest fish sure is bold.. it is sort of a kick now..when i am doing stuff in the tank..i look out for him.... a little 1 1/2 inch fish...and see how bold he is...

and now for something new... my algae blenny now eats out of my hand.. i put my finger in...and he nips at it...!! so i feed him by hand..he likes flakes and dry food..so it is interesting and i feed him sometimes nori...

well that is my story.. all the big guys in the tank hide..but the small guys do all the defending of the tank..and territories...

[mtreef]

Had a clown trigger that would follow you, daring you to put your hand in the tank. They can take a chunk out! I had to ball my fingers in a fist or he would bite them. I even lightly punched him a couple of times to let him know who's boss. He would punch back! Sometimes he would catch me sleeping and nail me. If you jerked your hand out he would be worse for weeks.

Eventually he lost interest and became lethargic. I found out he was going blind and eventually went totally blind. Had to hand feed him after that. What a change in that fish.

[mtreef]

PS, bought that trigger from a LFS after I found out he had been lost in shipping and spent a few days freezing in Montana winter somewhere. He came looking dead as a door-nail and the LFS stuck his head in a powerhead for a while. He floated to the bottom, but came out of it after a couple of days. Tough fish!

[tkg]

Used to get attaccked regularly by a pair of percula's. Then they started laying eggs and got even wilder. Eggs would last a few days then my yellow tang would look fatter than usual and the clowns madder.

[bongobrian]

OH YEAH! well my fish could beat up all of your fish! lol

[organicreefer]

50 bucks on the tang