Adding Clowns

[Noj]

Hello, I want to add 2 clowns to my tank once it has finished cycling.

Preferably they'd be mated or soon to be mated. Would I run into any problems of adding both clowns at the same time? Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, etc levels jumping again?

Right now I am only on day 16 of the cycle and my ammonia peaked 1 week ago, and now my nitrites are peaking. Ammonia reads below .025 right now.

I have about 30lbs of live rock (fully cured), small amount of live sand (from established tank), and a few hitchhiker snails, hermit, and some type of starfish.

I am hoping that sometime around the 2nd or 3rd week of April I will be able to add the clowns, but I just want to know what I should be aware of before hand.

Thanks

[Edmonton Eskimo]

If you want to have 2 clowns then it is important to add them at the same time or you will have aggression problems. As long as your tank is fully cycled you should be ok in adding both. Keep an eye on your levels for a couple days after introduction and you should be fine.

[mr_alberta]

Make sure that when you pick up your clowns that one is larger than the other. The smaller one will quickly become submissive to the larger one.

[Noj]

Okay, thanks

How do you sex clowns? Or are they asexual?

[Edmonton Eskimo]

females are the larger. They can change there sex. If only one clown is in a tank for aperiod of time it will automatically become female.

[megatron_55]

I believe all ocellaris (did I spell that right? ) are born males . . . when you buy them both at the same time and same size (when they are younger) . . . one of the clownfish will outgrow the other and becomes the female out of the two . . . Its best to buy both fish at the same time . . . specially when they are younger

[Ryan]

Megatron all clowns are born unsexed. They "house" both male and female sex organs. Well parts of these organs. It is when the clown is drove into submission it is turned into a male and the dominant is a female. You can keep many clowns together but you wil only get 1 pair the others will stay in the both sex state.

If you are worried about adding clowns and your levels spiking why not add mollies. Then when the tank levels out with the mollies take them out and add the clowns you wont get one spike at all. Clowns are very hardy fish, I wouldnt worry about levels spiking so much it will kill them.

[danny zubot]

It sounds like your tank is almost cycled, have you done a water change lately to speed it along? Its been my experinece that once the amonia levels begin to drop you can do a small water change to hurry up the othe cycles.

[megatron_55]

Originally Posted by Ryan

Megatron all clowns are born unsexed. They "house" both male and female sex organs. Well parts of these organs. It is when the clown is drove into submission it is turned into a male and the dominant is a female. You can keep many clowns together but you wil only get 1 pair the others will stay in the both sex state.

If you are worried about adding clowns and your levels spiking why not add mollies. Then when the tank levels out with the mollies take them out and add the clowns you wont get one spike at all. Clowns are very hardy fish, I wouldnt worry about levels spiking so much it will kill them.

Cool . . . learned something new again ... thanks!

[Noj]

Originally Posted by danny zubot

It sounds like your tank is almost cycled, have you done a water change lately to speed it along? Its been my experinece that once the amonia levels begin to drop you can do a small water change to hurry up the othe cycles.

Yes, I have dont small water changes. I am doing about 1 gallon 5 times per week. (about 8 times so far)


I have been reading up on clown mating, and I read that once they start to lay their eggs, they will continue to spawn every 6 weeks after?

Is that true?
Also, I have read that its around 200-400 eggs layed at a time. What is the mortality rate? Or would it be easier to calculate how many survive? 1%? 2%? 4%?

thanks