Canreef Aquatics Bulletin Board - Clown fish questions

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People mix different species all the time. A. Percula and A. Ocellaris get mixed and pair all the time. Skunks are the same. You just have to mix in the same complex. You cant mix clarkkiis with perculas or maroons and skunks.

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Originally Posted by Ryan (Post 677472)

Good points.

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Originally Posted by ponokareefer (Post 677445)

Good luck to everyone trying to keep more than 2 clowns in the same tank. I ignored everyone`s reasoning before too and just did it because I wanted to. It may work, for a while, as it has for others. Clownfish live for 25 to 30 years, so 6 months to a year living together is nothing. When you are having to try to save a clownfish when the dominant pair start kicking the crap out of the weaker clownfish, you will realize what a mistake it is. In a huge system, I have heard of a few people being able to keep 2 pairs, sometimes.

I tried baby`s all born and raised together as well, and they all died due to getting sick from the extreme stress of what I put them through. It was my saddest day in this hobby seeing clownfish die due to my own stupidity and ignorance.

If you want to see how well multiple clownfish live together, go to West Edmonton Mall and check out their clownfish tank. I watched it for about 15 minutes and it was constant fighting and bickering. Big Al`s in Edmonton used to have 4 clowns together in a tank for a about a year. There are 2 in the tank now.

If you are trying to mix different types of clowns, good luck. It can be done, but most of the time the dominant clownfish kills the other one if it isn`t done correctly.

My rant is done. Each person will do as they please, as I did. Just know what you are getting into.

+1

very few people house clowns together long term in large numbers, simply because when 2 pair off it can be ok for a while but when they want to mate they will take a larger territory and the female will become very aggressive thats why a large tank is a must or at the least alot of good hiding places.....with fish its out of sight out of mind if they can see each other there will be trouble:)

clowns are sexless untill there is no male or female present then a neutral takes the role of male and the male will take female if the female dies:)

The neutrals fight for who gets to be girl. The loser becomes the male.

This is why even in a group of adolescents you cant take the most dominant one and put it with a larger clown. Its is probably already turning to female (skipping the male stage)

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Originally Posted by Ryan (Post 677639)

hahah its funny eh and then it gets even worse because the new male has to put up with the harrassment from the female :p

alot of times when adding a male to a tank with an established female theres a good solid week or bickering :):)

Yup poor bugger.

I have heard thought thats the best way to pair maroons. Take a big established female and plunk in a tiny adolescent. The female just accepts the small guy and the small one is too scared of this new giant to even fight back!!

Clown males do have it good in a way though. The female will give her life to defend her mate and her clutch of eggs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ryan (Post 677648)

thats what i do when shopping for a male, my last pair were cinnamons and as im sure you know they are quite aggressive when full grown, so in order to replace the male i had to buy a small male, small enough he wouldnt fight back but large enough as not to be killed.

pairing can be difficult when maturity hits the female, my female killed the first 2 small clowns and accepted the 3rd it was even longer again before she would allow the anemone to host the new male:p

for the first time ever i have a pair of clowns that arnt cinnamon clowns, ive had cinns for almost 10yrs lol about time i changed over lol

I have given up trying to introduce any more clown fish with my female cinnamon clown. She killed the last couple that I tried, and has also killed a new butterfly before he learned to stay out of her way.

The crazy thing, though, is that she still spawns regularly (solo) at the base of a colt coral. The eggs only last a couple hours, but she cleans that area all the time.

I have had some painful bites from her myself when trying to clean coralline off my glass. She is a real bulldog, not afraid of anything, no matter what size they are. And she can really whack the algae scrapper. I am surprised she doesn't hurt herself.

One good thing about this clown fish, I am able to keep a few palys in the tank near her area, because the butterflys won't come near.

Can I assume that this clarkii I have is a female because its 4 1/2 inches long ? waht happens with a juvenile fish if it was always by itself ?

Its a good bet that the 3rd fish added (4 1/2") is female. That's a pretty good size for a clarkii. The bigger the clownfish, usually means female because the fish basically adds hormones/chromosomes to change the sex and grows. I'm assuming they are all clarkii's. Question: how long were the other 2 together? Had they ever spawned? If they hadn't and it wasn't very long, they could still be in a process of changing genders. If one had changed to female, and you added another, yes they will just fight, its just competition. Most my experience is with Perc's and Ocellaris's but i did have five ocellaris together, however there was also 3 BTA's in the tank which seperated them. 1 female for sure that paired. 2 Juvenile's paired and one Juvie just kind of hung around but there wasn't much chasing or fighting. guess i was lucky. If you just have one clownfish, there is no competition so it is the dominant fish, so it will eventually change sex, however it takes a little more time to go through the process. Everyone else is right on juvenile to male to female, but never backwards. sorry for the novel! hope it helps.