Clown Dilema -Clown lovers

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Playa

Active Member
I have a 180 reef. I first introduced a pair or perculas(tiny) about 2 months ago. One killed the other a week later(over a dispute for a hammer coral)

I have now the opportunity to buy a pair of Maroons and a pair of Saddle blacks(the 4 fish came from Bali).

My reef's aquascape is divided into 3 main sections of live rock.

Fish living in the reef now:
- 1 Orange back wrasse
- 1 Hawaian flame wrasse
- 1 Female Japanese swallotail Angel
- 1 Flame Angel
- 1 Sohal Tang
- 1 Mimic Tang
- 1 Blond Naso tang
- 1 Red Sea Sailfin Tang
- 5 Evansi Anthias
- 2 Species of Lyretail Anthias
- 1 Swales Swissguard Basslet
- 1 Neon Blue Goby
- 3 gold striped neon gobies

I have no Anemones other than a rock anemone(might not be in there long)

Both of these pair of clown are really awesome. Do any of you ahve more than one clown species in your reef? and if you do can you please comment on it and how large is your reef.

Idealy for me would be to house both pairs.

Pictures of the actual fish enclosed. I am told that in the picture of the maroon the blue near the gold is not really showing.

The smaller of the black clowns has a little tiny orange in his nose(due to the age) as the get older like the larger one to the side they become all black.

Pictures enclosed. Thankyou for your advice.

Here is first a picture of the Maroon with gold stripes. Notice that he looks like a teddy bear. And notice how vibrant the red is. No special effects on the picture.
 
dgasmd

dgasmd

Member
Those fish are gorgeous, especially the maroon. However, the marron may have a lot of problems with the saddle ones since both of these species are quite territorial and knows to fight even amongs thenselves, even more with other clowns present. Your current clown is going to be the first victim for sure. I would stick to one pair or the other and hope for the best for your current clown. Alternatively, you could just buy your current clown a mate much larger than him/her and likely they will pair up.
 
fidojoe

fidojoe

Fish Addict
Some beatiful looking fish for sure. I know MWRager has a Perc, and a clarkii (I think) in his 125, and their anemones are close to each other, and they look like they get along, from what I've seen.

I would be interested also, as I eventually would like to have a different species of clown in my tank along with my false perc., altho, it would probably be more difficult, as my tank is less than a third the size of yours.
 
TDEVIL

TDEVIL

Well-Known Member
glad to see that you havent given up on having pairs, i only have 1 maroon right now, but will be getting another

how is the naso doing, thinking about getting rid of mine, wasnt in the plan (friends tank broke, i got his stuff when he quit;))

TD
 
Z

zy112

Active Member
luis... do you still have your 65 gallon reef as well. one of the things that i think makes your tanks soo impressive is the amount of fish you keep. do you run uv? also, what is your filtration? i am amazed by your tanks and just curious about your set-up.
 
mnreefman

mnreefman

Well-Known Member
they will be fine in a 180... im uessing one pair will take one half and the other will get the other half... good luck, they look like great accusitions
 
BoomerD

BoomerD

Well-Known Member
FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!
Yep, you guessed it, I believe there will be problems with the different species of clowns. Maroons are notoriously territorial, and re even known for "biting the hand that feeds them." you might get lucky and they each aaccept a territory on different ends of the tank, but it's certainly not the way MY luck would run. In my tanks, they would all decide on the same exact piece of turf to call their own, and it would be a constant battle until (most likely), The maroons had the tank to themselves, and then it might not end until there was only 1.
I tried to introduce a black percula into my 90 2 weeks after I put in the 2 T.R. oscellaris clowns, and they wouldn't let him be. Constantly picking at him, driving him away, and generally, making his life very stressful. So, into the 40 he went, and remains there today.
 
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Craig Manoukian

Craig Manoukian

Well-Known Member
Originally posted by Playa
I have a 180 reef.

Fish living in the reef now:
- 1 Orange back wrasse
- 1 Hawaian flame wrasse
- 1 Female Japanese swallotail Angel
- 1 Flame Angel
- 1 Sohal Tang
- 1 Mimic Tang
- 1 Blond Naso tang
- 1 Red Sea Sailfin Tang
- 5 Evansi Anthias
- 2 Species of Lyretail Anthias
- 1 Swales Swissguard Basslet
- 1 Neon Blue Goby
- 3 gold striped neon gobies
Click to expand...

Luis,

I have to side with Reefrunners brief comment. If you project the adult lengths of your current fish you are approaching 160 inches of fish. I would guess that your net water volume is less than 160 gallons when you account for your LR and DSB. The rule of thumb is 1" of fish for every net gallon of water.

At a minimum even a pair of clowns is a stretch given the stocked level of your tank.

However, if there wasn't a stocking issue I believe you could keep two pairs of clowns in a tank of that size provided you were able to achieve some separation and parameters. The ideal stocking plan for the pairs does not conform to the current availablity of the fish though, bad timing.

If you could place two BTAs apart from each other with sufficient rock work so there was no line of sight between them and then once the anenomes are established, you could introduce a pair of fish at a time to bond with their host anenome. Although territorial, clowns will generally not wander far from their anenome and as long as the clowns were not in sight of each other and separated by enough distance I believe you could have two pairs.

You would need to reduce your fish load first and then take the time to set-up your clown pairs properly. There are, however, no guarantees with any of this, but I have seen this work with a local reefer in a 180 gallon tank.

HTH:) :D :cool: ;) :p :smirk:
 
wooddood

wooddood

the wood dude
ive got that many fish in my 120 right now luis and have'nt had a problem.i know im streching the limits but im moving soon and will be thinning the fish population down in the process and getting rid of the damsels i used to cycle the tank.i know i should'nt of used damsels but i did so shoot me.if thats the biggest mistake i make i'll be lucky.lol.
 
David

David

Member
Niiiice tomato clowns. That particular colouring is the Sumatran form. Don't get too many of them out in my neck of the woods.

Anemones would be a good way to keep the clowns a little bit more restricted in their movements, but larger species like the tomato are known to venture up to a metre away from their host anemone, so it may not work.

Just some food for thought
 
Z

zensaiyan

Member
WILL THEY GET ALONG?

Hi everyone. i have a pair of percula clowns, two scooter blennys, and a dragonet in my tank right now, and i was wanting to put a fu manchu lionfish in the tank. everything i read says that these dwarf lionfish MAY nip at fish smaller than them, but they don't get that big so i didn't know if they would bother my current inhabitants. does anyone have any experience with the fu manchu lion? does anyone have any suggestions? thanks for the help.
brian
 
P

Playa

Active Member
Great advice everyone:) Thanx so very much.

At this point I think I will go with the mated pair of blacks. I have found also that the Maroon are not mated. He actually has several of those awesome looking maroons for sale. He told me that he does not get the blacks as often. Last week he order 30 got none, this week he got 3.

Talking about Bryan from www.blowfishaquatics.com

Again deeply greatful for your help.
 
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reefrunner

reefrunner

Contributing Member
So in a tank that is severely overstocked, not that I agree with the rule of thumb, but it is not 1" per gallon, it's 1" per 5 gallons....with a tank that overstocked your going to add more fish?
BangHead.gif
 
T

tankgirl

Active Member
Luis, I was hoping I could get my black perc to get along with a mated pair of true percs I got with the tank - and had a big advantage because the true percs already had their territory settled in the tank - and my black perc hosts a frogspawn which I put at the other end of the 260. Even so, it didn't work out. You know how clowns stick close to their little territory? Well, these little guys were swimming the whole length of the 260 to harass each other (just the two females harassed each other).

Flipper has a maroon that gets along with his two leucos, but I think that's because the leucos are immature. And they may not ever sex out, may stay immature because of the maroon.

I know there are reports of people who've managed to pull it off, but I don't think it works out very often.
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Kev, I honestly feel that the guidelines about fish numbers is just that, a rough guide for most people who do average maintainance. Luis has some pretty awesome equipment, like that skimmer that's rated for a heavily stocked 450Gal tank. And, I know his maintainance is awesome. Anyway, I think it's a good general guideline, but suspect Luis's exceptional tank and husbandry make it non-applicable.
 
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reefrunner

reefrunner

Contributing Member
So because it's Louis....it's OK for him to do something that you would recommend others not do. I get it now.

Hey Louis...what happened to that school of cardinals you ordered from Dr Fosters & Smith?
 
David

David

Member
Here's some more food for thought:

When a juvenile clownfish has need of a new home, it will search for an existing colony if a host is not available. This juvenile will be checked out by the local resident male, and if the traveller does not meet his approval, the resident male will drive him off.

Now, all this is confused in all but gigantic aquariums. One, if there is only one existing clownfish, it will take on the behaviour of a resident male; ie, driving off unliked newcomers. That's all well and good, but the poor little todger has no where to go.

Same goes for territorial battles; the female takes the lead with the resident male likely behind, and the rest of the 'family' might get involved.

tankgirl, your singature wouldn't happen to be a line from a Looney Tunes cartoon with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Sammity Sam that had a particularly operatic spin, would it?
 
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