Damselfishes & Clownfishes

Often given a bad name by their most aggressive members, these ‘cichlids of the sea’ are available in a range of temperaments suitable for a range of fish communities.

Damsels and clowns are perfect candidates for adding to a reef aquarium and there aren’t many which don’t have a resident pair of clownfish, either with or without an anemone host. Even the most aggressively territorial species will ignore invertebrates, with the exception of Neoglyphidodon which eat corals and Abudefduf, which may strip polyps from SPS corals to prepare a spawning site. Both are best avoided for a number of reasons with Chromis and Chrysiptera giving plenty of species to choose from.

Damsels are mostly motivated to fight by status, and this can be best avoided by mixing fish of different sizes. Large, dominant males will guard a nest and court females, with juveniles being lower in the pecking order. Duplicate this by establishing new groups with a single larger animal combined with a number of smaller ones. The larger the size difference, the less aggression will result. Clownfish reverse this pattern, with dominant fish becoming female and the most peaceful new pairings resulting from differently sized fishes. The more aggressive the clown, the bigger the difference should be.

Many of the clownfish seen in stores are now many generations from their wild ancestors and display colouration not seen in the wild. These domestic strains are generally bred from unusually coloured wild fish that arose thanks to the fact that clownfish fry don’t move far from home. This means that isolated populations can develop a tendency to inbreeding, which exaggerates unusual markings.