Clown beating up other clown even after submission
 

I have two perculas that don't seem to get along. The slightly larger one has for sure become the dominant fish in the tank. The other fish is the same size if not slightly smaller and is getting beat up pretty bad. He has torn up fins and now the other one will chase him around the tank.

His fins started getting tattered when he joined the anemone with her. He fully shows submission but still gets beaten up. She has very little signs of any damage on her. I'm going to grab him and put him in the sump to heal up.

Do I have to trade him in for a smaller one? Is his size the issue here?

I actually caught her and put her in the sump to let him recover in the main tank with the anemone. When he's healed back up I'll add her to the display and let you know what happens.

Most likely they fight again, as bad or worse next time. Hard to get them to pair if they are close in size. Had the same thing happen.

yeah, there's no "calming" down stage. They will fight until one dies, or survives long enough for the larger one to grow large enough where it doesn't feel threatened. Most likely the smaller will get killed.

here is what i would do. keep 2 of them separated until the victim fish is fully covered and fully established in his new territory. once that happen you put the aggressive fish into the sump where that victim fish has been for the last x months. at this time the victim fish has already established his territory and the other fish is new to his environment so he is less aggressive. basically you turn the table on the aggressive fish and for me i always end up get them to get along.

i also do this for my purple tangs. i put the smaller one in the DT first and let him establish his environment and then later i add the slightly larger one in there and since he is bigger he can stand his ground. once the smaller fish realize his new tank mate is bigger he cant bully and the new fish is new to his environment and he is not bullying anyone, they get along great and somehow now they both same size :)

The only thing bad about separating them would be the other if male would evetunally become female. I would just put the male (smaller fish) in a observation floating thing (forgot what they were called) and let the female become use to him while the male is still safe and can heal in the DT.

I was able to catch the aggressive one and I put her (I assume) in the sump and am letting the male (I assume) establish his territory in the anemone and heal like suggested above. When he is fully healed I will bring the sump clown back to the display. Its funny how I look at her in the sump and she looks at me like...OK I was wrong!

After a couple of weeks of the female in the sump I reintroduced her to the main tank. She went immediately back to the anemone. There was a little bullying for the first week but happy to say they have mated and just spawned their first batch of eggs.

It's incredible the difference in behavior after pairing, especially at meal time, they used to jet out and get back to the anemone as soon as they could but now they eat together.

I've had a number of pairs that only scrapped while bonding, and I've had a few pairs that also scrapped heavily as the female was maturing and ready to spawn weeks later, like what you'd imagine a heavy hormonal change could cause.

Your initial fighting heavily could have been from being so close in size, maybe the female was just making sure dominance was well established.

Glad it worked out for you.