Second clown?

bassman · #1 03-04-2008, 02:10 PM

One of my false percs died a few months ago and I was considering adding another one that will hopefully pair up with my remaining false perc.

I am just wondering if it's too late to add another one or not. I am concerned that the orginal one will beat on the new one.

Also are all false percs created equally? If I one is not supposed to mix different species of clowns are all false percs okay to mix with any other false perc?

I just want to avoid disrupting my tank by adding a fish that I may need to chase around the tank for two days in order to return it to the store.

My current clown is hosting a BTA and I have carpet anemone that has no clown hosting.

Thks

ElGuappo · #2 03-04-2008, 03:52 PM

i have heard a couple of arguments to this. one is NO MIXED SPECIES and have also heard as long as there are enough hosts around then it is ok to mix. they will not fight as long as they have ample choice when choosing a host. mixed with enough swimming room that doesnt interfear with anohters.

As far adding another i really dont know. pretty sure a new one of the same species would be ok but dont take my word for it. do they not alter sex to accomidate thier tank makes? is it only True percs?

Delphinus · #3 03-04-2008, 04:25 PM

Short answer is you can probably get another. Whether they pair up again depends on how you play your cards though.

The best bet, IMO, is to get one that is considerably smaller than your existing fish. This is will "encourage" submission to the existing fish, and then they should get along. The larger fish, if not already a female will become the female (and even if it was the male before, given that it's been on its own for a month, given the absence of a dominant female, could be on the verge of transitioning from male to female).

If you get another similarly sized fish you likely will see a lot of fighting. If both are males, they will "fight for the right to become female". If they are both female, likely they will fight forever for territory. (Once female, you don't go back down to being male.)

When I've lost a fish in my pairing, this is how I would introduce a new one (ie., pick one that is way smaller). This happened to me two times, ie., losing one fish of the pairing, and each time eventually resulted in a mated pairing with former male becoming female, and the newcomer becoming the male.

HTH!

sharuq1 · #4 03-04-2008, 04:27 PM

This may not be the case with everyone, but I found that getting one of similar size helps. The two I had that were bigger I ended up selling because they would beat up their tankmates, but the smaller ones get along great, even though one of them looks like it might be a young black perc (still in the process of losing orange) and the other is a regular one.

Delphinus · #5 03-04-2008, 04:49 PM

If they're still small, then theoretically two of the same size would get along because neither are in competition for dominance as yet. Eventually they'd pair off, deciding who gets to be female by whomever wins the most arguments (

I know it sounds like I'm making innuendo, but I'm not.

).

If you're not 100% sure if you have one that has started the transition from male to female, the best best is to get a smaller one as the newer. IMHO anyhow.

Whatigot · #6 03-04-2008, 05:08 PM

I had the same scenario a while back and I just took the larger perc out of the main tank and put her in a quarantine at the same time as I added her new friend who was about 1/2 the size to the quarantine.
I left them in quarantine together and then put them both back into the main tank after about a week.

They paired up after that and were insepreable, though I might have just gotten lucky...

untamed · #7 03-04-2008, 07:10 PM

I did this with Maroon clowns. I had one, larger, very established for years...and I added a smaller one.

The larger one spent the first two days trying to kill the smaller one. Had I not intervened, I'm sure she would have succeeded. I finally caged the smaller one to prevent direct attacks. After 3 days, I let the smaller one out and "he" moved into an anemone on the far side of the tank.

Every day after that, the smaller fish moved closer to the larger. It took about 1 week and they were sharing an anemone. They began to breed about 3 months later.