adding another clown fish

aquaman24

Member
hey everyone! i was just wondering if it would be okay for me to add another clown fish(ive had an ocellaris clown fish for about 5 months now) . would my current clown fish kill the new one or would they pair up? Thanks!!
 

marine281

Member
Add a juvenile of the same species & you will be fine.

+1

Go smaller, if you get one the same size you will likely have issues. You don't want to end up with 2 females in the same tank.

If you get a juvenile it won't have a sex yet, and if your current clown is a female, the new arrival will become a male & everyone should be happy.
 

aquaman24

Member
thanks marine but how can i tell if my current clown fish is a male or a female?? idk if this will help but it seemed to get aggressive towards my bicolor basslet when i added him and it also does this weird dance in the sand and stirs up the sand. Thanks for all your help everyone
 

marine281

Member
I'm no expert on them, the only way I know is that the larger one is always the female. That way makes it hard to ID, as size is relevant. eg, if you have a pair of them for a few years, the female will get quiet large, but the male will still be pretty big too when you compare him to a juvenile.

As far as I know, juveniles can become male or female, males can become females, but females can't turn back into males.

With that in mind, you can see the problem with 2 females. 2 males is ok, as they will fight a bit to decide who gets to be the girl, but sort it out eventually.

So thats why a juvenile is best, it won't be seen as a threat to the female, so she will be more likely to accept it.
 

cioutlaw

Well-Known Member
If you add a much smaller juvenile it will be more likely not to fight & succomb to the larger fishes demands. If they are the same size it is posible they will fight to one or boths death.
 
Hmmm I would add a juvi that is smaller than the one you have now. Not the same size, but smaller. What I am concerned about, if you add one the same size, it is a possibility that you will be adding another female along with yours (that is if yours has made the sex change).
Ive never kept a single clown, so I would not know if you keep a single clown does it morph into a female or remain gender neutral. So I would just add a smaller one to be on the safe side of things.
 

jcgardner

Member
Definetly get a younger/smaller one. I had two false percs, added them at the same time, they stayed about the same size. They started fighting and one actually killed the other. I thought they were spawing at first because they were acting weird and the one that died had started to hide out. Being new to sw at the time I thought they had layed eggs, and they were just protecting them. This was not the case and by the time I figured it out it was too late.
 

Jose Guzman

New Member
I recently went through this. As the LFS had only one maroon clown, (had to wait 2 weeks for the next clown). The first was a female, second was a smaller more maroon colored male. She bullied him for a few hours. Fins were noticeably nipped. Slowly started to come around and now 2 weeks later they are inseparable.
 

zenzence

Member
Hello All,
I have a 32 gallon red sea max with a pair of clowns. I have been thinking about adding a third picasso clown. Is this a horrible idea? I have a feeling they are going to fight like hell??
If this is the case what if I was to remove the dominate female and then add the picasso?


Thanks
Chad Zenzen
 
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