Oscellaris clownfish killing Banggai Cardinalfish

My small reef tank has been running smoothly for a couple of months. I introduced a pair of Oscellaris clownfish a few weeks ago along with some corals. Everything was going well until today...
The banggai cardinalfish had a damaged fin and did not eat this morning. A few hours later, I caught the female clownfish biting off pieces of the cardinalfish fins.
I filmed this in his last moments.

-Could this be a territorial issue?
-Why would the clownfish suddenly pick on the cardinal fish after living happily together for over 10 days?
-Now that the dead cardinalfish has been removed, the same female clownfish is starting to pick on the coral goby. Is removing the clownfish the only way to solve this?

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• clownfish
• reef tank
• aquarium
• cardinalfish
• banggai
• oscellaris
• marine tank
• marine fish
• saltwater aquarium
• corals

[airsoftarmy15]

is the flame angel reef safe



[hadrosaure]

@airsoftarmy15 It is, but use caution. More information can be found on the web

[stutteral]

love the way your rocks are set up

[RaffleReefer10]

Tank size? Clownfish pairs can be nasty when spawning.

[nemo220901]

@ilikespam9002 should be good.

[ilikespam9002]

Beautiful clowns and the flame angel.Sorry bout the cardinal im looking into getting one of those but i just got 2 baby clarkii clowns and im not sure how they will do.

[misssomethingelsenow]

refuge that cardinal or hospital tank. i guess its late already for this comment

[RaffleReefer10]

female clownfish can be mean. remove it if you want the other fish to live

[vishr]

same thing happened to me! MY clownfish killed 2 of my green chromis! He also killed my blenny!

[Kensvids16]

There is a slight possibility that your clowns laid eggs/building a nest and the Clown was being territorial.