Different mix of clown fishes

[Lance75]

Hi all,

New to saltwater. I had a pair of false percula in my 215 gallon tank. Today, I introduced 2 black and white false percula and the original clowns are chasing the black and white ones non-stop. Is this a temp thing ? Or will these two types will learn to get along

I have

 

[SaltwaterNuB]

So you have a total of 4? I think you can only have 2 in a tank.

 

[Lance75]

Also want to add that I have one blue tang, one yellow tang, one blonde naso tang, a foxface, a few other fishes. They all get along well

 

[Lance75]

I figured since it is a big tank, they would be ok. Anyone here able to keep different mix of clowns in same tank?

 

[Andy Sager]

Clownfish, like damsels, are territorial. You'll need to provide a second "home" within the tank for these new fish to claim.

Ideally, in smaller tanks, you should only keep one of a species if you are going to keep multiple species together. In larger aquariums, you just need to redecorate a little so that there are places out of eyesight for the new fish to claim. The more places you can make, the more varieties you can keep with some exceptions. (Maroons, Tomatoes, etc.) Keep in mind that when you get small clowns of the same specie to start with, you are almost assured you will have a pair as they mature so you need to be mindful of this when keeping multiple varieties together.

Hope this helps...

 

[SaltwaterNuB]

I wish I could have 2 more. They are pretty cool fish. You do have a giant tank. Any pics?

 

[Lance75]

Here is the pic of my tank. It used to be freshwater with a 2 ft long arowana.

 

[Lance75]

Thanks Andy,


Should I return the two new black and white clowns to lfs before they die from exhaustion?

 

[SaltwaterNuB]

That thing is nice. I would probably do what Andy said.

 

[Lance75]

Thanks. I was hoping I can keep these two new ones. They looked really good.One odd thing is that I only see the bigger black and white clown is been chase now. They pretty much leave the smaller one alone

 

[dlsrks]

They see the bigger one as a threat to their territory. I have a cinnamon clown, maroon clown in my 75 gallon tank. Had to get a new tank for my 2 false percula clowns I purchased. The cinnamon clown would never stop chasing them. The damsels also chased them. now they are very happy.

 

[Beengirl]

From what I've read, the dominant pair will endlessly harass the non-dominant pair, and might eventually kill them. I would take the new ones out.

 

[Lance75]

Would it be better if I bring the two normal false percula to the lfs and trade for two different ones? Since the two black and white ones only been in the tank for one day?

 

[nikki_kaiser]

It's a little deceiving when you go to a fish store because a lot of them will put a bunch of clowns together. They can do this because typically they are juveniles and all male. I've gone to petco and seen this but I think it's because they just don't know, don't care, or both.

 

[Elude82]

Clowns, clowns, clowns! I have a false ocellaris( the biggest) a true percula( middle), and a mocha( smallest). They all get along, but they were introduced as smaller than the last. They have their Pecking order. I have had no luck with black and white clowns I have tried it twice and both times were failures. One was actually twice the size of my false, and my false beat it up. Recently I tried to introduce a small false( smaller than the 3 I have) and he got beat up too! At first they did their twitching, but I noticed they were doing their pecking order almost until the false was close to death. Even the yellow tail damsels started on the little guy. I took him out, got the little guy back to 100%, and gave it to a friend, who had a another false. Now the two are BFF! Lol So yeah, the Damsel comes out of clowns when introducing new ones. To me: it's a hit or a miss, but definitely can't introduce one bigger than your dominant one.

 

[emerald76]

Add a lot of rock and see what happens
Make some hidden caves near the back of the tank with more than one exit. Also, maybe some deep pits in the rock with passages to caves leading out of the rock? Don't know if that would be understood lol
Basically like a deep bowl shape then a passageway out through the rock

 

[Lance75]

Update. Day 2. The big black and white clown is fighting back . He's no longer running from the other two false perculas.

 

[Andy Sager]

View attachment 127197

Here is the pic of my tank. It used to be freshwater with a 2 ft long arowana.

With all due respect, your tank's decor is not realy enough to house multiple territorial fishes. (IME: in my experience) To house multiple pairs of clowns I would put enough rock in the middle of your tank to almost split the tank in half. Build it up in the middle so that the 2 pairs could live without seeing each other if at all possible. Make sure that there is adequate water circulation through the section by either adding an airstone or power head to force water through the divider so that there are no dead spots of water movement.

Don't be shy about putting more decor. Below are 2 pics of my old 75 gal tank. The one with the fish in it was taken 10 minutes before the lights went out. (Unfortunately, you can't really see all that is in there but if you look hard, you can see the face of my juv. majestic angel in the dark hole to the left of the staghorn coral above the red pipe organ coral and my med Blueface Angel was already behind the montipora coral on the right bottom of the tank. ) You'll see a spray bar on the top left which circulated the water across the top half of the tank and there was a power head buried from view (but accessible from above) behind the big mound of coral to make sure there was circulation through there. The base decore was lava rock set up so that there were a myriad of tunnels and channels for the fish to swim through and the water to circulate.

The second pic was taken 10 minutes after lights out. As you can see, by having all these areas for the fish to feel secure, they were always out in front when the lights were on. All my tanks have been set up as the "edge of a reef" so that there was room for swimmers and homes for territories. In this tank, I had 3 ocellaris clowns ( on the left) and a pair of Pink skunks that would stay in the bottom right side of the tank. They rarely saw the Ocellaris except at feeding so fighting was almost non existant.


Now, before I get grief from anyone about the natural corals in my tanks as decorations, know that these corals have been in my collections for over 30 years and have been out of the water even longer. Please don't send PETA or any Government agencies my way because these were all legally collected at the time.

By the way: by keeping all this natural coral in the tanks, I never had PH or alkalinity probs because if the levels fell, the coral would "dissolve" and bring the levels right back up. Just like in nature

 

[Lance75]

Thanks Andy. I'm slowly adding more live rocks and corals. They false perculas are much better now. They only harass the black and white ones once awhile. Hopefully it will be better since I would want to keep all of them