Cinnamon/Tomato clown pair?

[Jared J]

If a LFS had a tank of Cinnamon/Tomato clowns, how would you go about picking a possible pair? I was told to pick the largest and the smallest in the tank and they would eventually become a pair. Is that wrong/right?

[crvz]

that's correct. clowns are hermaphroditic, so getting the smallest (presumably an immature juvenile) available would increase your chances of getting a pair, as the more dominant fish will assume the female role. Honestly, you may be better off just getting two of the smallest, and letting nature figure it out for you. but those are some grumpy fish as adults, so keep that in mind. The pair may limit your ability to add other fish down the line.

[Jared J]

Ahh, ok. Any other suggestions for clowns besides percs. I do want to have a rose bulb anemone. A friend of mine has one that has split.

[crvz]

well if you're looking at the BTA, the maroons are the way too go. I think that's a natural host anemone for those clowns.

[Jared J]

Maroons tend to be nasty too, aren't they? Or would they have to be a pair?

[crvz]

well almost any clown can be territorial, adding an anemone to the mix makes it worse in my experience, and adding a mate amplifies it even more. The tomato is kind of aggressive, more than a percula and less than a maroon.

[OneDummHikk]

Originally Posted by Jared J

Maroons tend to be nasty too, aren't they? Or would they have to be a pair?

Maroons aren't ones that you want if you don't want aggressive clowns or if you plan on adding anything else (fish wise) later. My ~3" female GSM terrorizes my 7" Sailfin and 6" Foxface. She runs the tank. The only thing in the tank she doesn't terrorize is my engineer goby (12+" long) and I think the only reason she is scared of it is because she can't see the other end of him when he is in the rocks.

Be careful with the RBTA and adding clowns. I would add the RBTA and give it time to actually grow large enough to host the clowns. The RBTA I have is about 2" in diameter and I put it in a tank with two percs and they loved it TOO much. It hardly ever opened. I had to remove it and now it is relatively clown free and in the 5 days or so since then, it seems to be doing a lot better. It will grow to a minimum of 6-8" before I try adding the clowns back to it.

Good luck with it.

[Jared J]

Yeah I may do that. I like the percs but I just get so sick of the "Nemo" thing, lol.

[OneDummHikk]

I have always had a FW tank and when I finally decided to setup a saltwater tank, my 13 year old daughter threatened my very existence on earth if I didn't have a Nemo in the tank. Her words "I know where you sleep and I know where the kitchen knives are!". So, I have a pair of them. I like them but they make her happy so I have to keep a home for them.

[crvz]

Originally Posted by crvz

well if you're looking at the BTA, the maroons are the way too go. I think that's a natural host anemone for those clowns.

reading back, I realized I had a brain-to-finger problem, what I meant here was the tomato was the way to go with a BTA. Hence the confusion.