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Hottsauce23
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Topic: Adding New Clowns Posted: February 15 2016 at 10:08pm |
I currently have 3 ocellaris clowns in my tank. They had just killed off the other clown I had in there. They all were put in at the exact same time and had been together when I got them. I had once tried to introduce 2 tomato clowns to the tank but were killed off within a couple hours. I want to add another clown but am afraid it might get killed off. I have a 55 G tank. I was thinking of maybe getting rid of all 3 clown so I could put in a new pair or at least get rid of the single clown who killed off the other clown which would leave the pair left. Hopefully I can get some input. I just don't want to risk buying a clown to only have it getting beaten up and can't return it. Thanks
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: February 16 2016 at 7:57am |
This has been discussed here on the forum quite a few times. A search will turn up those discussions, but here is a recap of how I see it, from my experience.
Clownfish are members of the Damsel family (which includes Chromis) and as such, are very territorial. They absolutely must have their personal space. Any tank, even +120 gal. is only enough room for more than a pair of adult Clownfish to survive for very long. Multiple anemones helps a little to temporarily prolong the lives of multiple pairs in larger tanks. Fish Training, as found and described in the Reefkeeping Tip, helps a little, for a little while.
Sure, we can introduce many young clownfish to a tank, as I did here(pics below), or several young clownfish to a tank with a settled pair(been there done that). But as the young mature, as the dominant ones claim their territory, the others will pass away one by one, usually leaving just a single dominant female and her chosen partner. The chosen male partner may even be one of the young ones recently introduced, leaving the original male ostracized to where it also passes quietly away or is beat up and killed.
Unfortunately, captive breeding has not seemed to change this genetic trait one single bit.
Aloha, Mark
Edited by Mark Peterson - February 16 2016 at 8:51am
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Hottsauce23
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Posted: February 16 2016 at 2:44pm |
Thanks Mark. So since I was hoping to get a different kind of clownfish I should probably sell all 3 correct?
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: February 17 2016 at 6:58am |
Yep. This forum is a great place to find hobbyists that want them.
Aloha, Mark
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Jeremyw
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Posted: February 17 2016 at 8:12am |
I have more than 2 in my tank for over a year with no problem. I have seen and know of several tanks locally that have 8 clowns for years that work. I know of nationally a TON of tanks that host more than 4 or 8 clowns and have no problems that Mark stated.
Edited by Jeremyw - February 17 2016 at 8:13am
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: February 17 2016 at 9:21am |
Ok, I'll bite. How is it done, in what size of tanks? How could this be done with these 3 Clownfish in this hobbyist's 55 gal?
Aloha, Mark
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superman1981
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Posted: February 17 2016 at 2:46pm |
Jeremyw wrote:
I have more than 2 in my tank for over a year with no problem. Â I have seen and know of several tanks locally that have 8 clowns for years that work. I know of nationally a TON of tanks that host more than 4 or 8 clowns and have no problems that Mark stated.Â
| Jeremy, are your clown fish the same species or are they different species? I'm also curious to know the size of your tank. In my old 125gal I had 4 clowns for over a year, 2 black ocellaris and 2 orange ocellaris. Each group had about a 3 ft section of the tank they stuck to and they rarely interacted, except during feeding time, but I never had an issue with fighting.
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Sure you are, you are Crappy Reef Club Member #1 -Chk4tix 6 gal nanocube 65 gal build thread
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DMower
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Posted: February 17 2016 at 4:10pm |
I had a yellow stripe maroon (3+inches), three spotcinctus (2-3 inches), and a black occelaris (3 inches) in my six foot long 150 for about a year. It is doable for sure, would I do it again, probably not. The Maroon prevented me from adding more occelaris/perculas to the tank. I am sure she would have killed them. This forced me to set up a clownfish tank for a group of black and white occelaris and a black ice I acquired. Poor me, right. Lol
I ended up selling the loner spotcinctus a few months ago and recently sold the maroon as well. I moved the black and white down to the clown fish tank which is a 28 gallon jbj. When I did this I was not sure what would happen. I thought my large black ice and this large black and white were possibly both females. That does not appear to be the case as they got along from day one. It seems they may be a pair soon. There are 6 total occelaris in the 28 gallon tank. It has three anemones in it.
I believe that each tank and tank keeper is different and what works for me may not work for you. I don't know. I think that proper rock work, good feeding, several areas in the tank where different clowns can feel comfortable go a long way to a peaceful tank. I get a little bit of chasing now and again, that seems to be it.
All I have left as far as clownfish go in the 150 is a pair of spotcinctus clowns that happened to lay eggs a few weeks ago. Did this behavior start because I removed all the other clownfish or for another reason? I don't know. The egg laying started not long after I re did the tank. It may just be a coincidence, or maybe they are more comfortable. Not sure.
Edited by DMower - February 17 2016 at 4:13pm
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150 gal reef with 50 gal sump. Reef Octopus DCS-200 Skimmer. AI Sol Blues.
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