# Maroon Clownfish digging holes ?!?



## TankCla (Dec 31, 2010)

My maroon digging a hole in the sand under a big rock. It is some sort of cave, what she makes there. 
What could trigger this kind of behavior.

As soon as I put back the sand, she starts carrying the big pieces with her mouth and with the tale, she makes the hole you see in the picture.









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## Bayinaung (Feb 24, 2012)

that's cute! (10 chr)


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## loonie (Mar 29, 2008)

I have a mated pair, they do the same thing, always moving the sand under the rocks but they do it only in one area.


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## JamesHurst (Mar 1, 2013)

Yup, my large female has always done this since it was a juvenile. Cleaning, prepping for a proper place to place eggs, regardless the presence of a mate or not.

Maroon females dig a lot when they're on their own, so it'll be something to prepare yourself for


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## Norman (Feb 13, 2011)

My Maroon female has even enlisted her mate with the digging. When she sees me watching her she fills her mouth with sand and swims over to the glass and spits it at me. I suppose she thinks that I too should help with the digging.


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## TankCla (Dec 31, 2010)

I understand better now. I was suspecting it has something to do with . To bad I don't have a male. 
@Norman: mine does the same thing. She is carrying sand over the other half of the tank now. She is trying to discourage me to fill back the hole  


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## JamesHurst (Mar 1, 2013)

Norman said:


> My Maroon female has even enlisted her mate with the digging. When she sees me watching her she fills her mouth with sand and swims over to the glass and spits it at me. I suppose she thinks that I too should help with the digging.


I must see videos of this haha. Adorable!


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## TankCla (Dec 31, 2010)

She is angry I covered the hole!

Later edit: Humiliating 5-0 )))))))

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## JamesHurst (Mar 1, 2013)

TankCla said:


> She is angry I covered the hole!
> 
> Later edit: Humiliating 5-0 )))))))
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Ahhhahaha, Awesome video man, thanks for posting it


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## TankCla (Dec 31, 2010)

She made it down up to the glass. She is crazyyy 


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## loonie (Mar 29, 2008)

Hey TankCla, you have a butterfly that is common and cheap in the far east Singapore waters, does it not nip your corals


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## TankCla (Dec 31, 2010)

Not yet. I have a problem with food selection though. He is eating only bloodworms. He ate all the spaghetti worms from the tank also. 


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## videosilva (Oct 14, 2013)

*Cute*

That is REALLY cute. I reminds me of the African Cichlids, they drove me MAD !


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## Kooka (Feb 8, 2011)

That behavior is fairly common for clownfish. I have two mated pairs of tomato and clarkii clowns and they do the same thing... drives me nuts but what can you do  If I remember correctly I read that they do this around anemones and other things they host in order to clear them of debris; in this case your substrate. Notice that the bubbletip they are hosting is close to the substrate. Maybe if you were to encourage it to move further up on the rock your clownfish digging and cleaning would stop.


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## TankCla (Dec 31, 2010)

I tried, but she found a nice hole in the rock and stuck her foot there. Difficult to move, this anemone. 


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## Kooka (Feb 8, 2011)

Yup, they are difficult creatures to get to move. I found that if you gently tickle its foot for a while (around 5 minutes) and then aim a power head at it they usually move on their own. It's worked for me so you might want to give it a try.


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## TankCla (Dec 31, 2010)

Just buried some rubble LR where she is digging. Maybe this will hold her from going down through the floor.  


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## TankCla (Dec 31, 2010)

She is mad now. She is biting off the green fluorescent ball tips of my torch. She is crazy


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## JamesHurst (Mar 1, 2013)

My maroon killed my first torch this way, head by head. Move it away from her asap.


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