So far so good!
Posted: Sat Apr 03, 2010 11:30 pm
I brought home a smallish (2") tomato clown last Monday, put it in my GSP's 55 gallon which she shares with two blue damsels. The minute I introduced the new clown into the tank, my GSP dashed right up to the clown like she was going to attack. I feared for the worst, and was already kicking myself for trying. However, the little clownfish surprised me - and my GSP too, from the looks of it. When Cuddles (my GSP) zoomed up to the clown, instead of running off and trying to get away, the little clownfish turned right around and tilted up a little bit and faced straight on to Cuddles. Cuddles stopped immediately. She moved off, but in about 20 seconds she came back up the clownfish, who again turned right toward her and even advanced toward Cuddles a bit. Cuddles backed off and meandered off to the far end of the tank. After a couple of minutes the two repeated the same sequence of events, and with that it was over. Cuddles now avoids the new clownfish. At feeding time is the only time they come together, and I've seen my GSP confront the clownfish a couple of times as if to say, "Hey, get away from my food!" but the clownfish (I guess I really should come up with a name, shouldn't I) just stares her down and Cuddles backs off and goes back to grabbing more food. It's weird: even the damsels don't bother the clown - they bully each other around, and pester my GSP, but not the clown. It's fascinating because to me, it seems like it's purely psychological warfare: the clownfish has nothing to back up its bravado with since it's not poisonous and has no sort of armament, and probably almost any fish could kill it pretty quickly if it wanted to. But because it's brave and stands up to a threat, it survives. Is there a lesson in there somewhere?
