At this time, I have a pair of maroons and a pair of oscellaris in my 55. The female oscellaris was well established when I added the juvenile maroon.
A few months later, I tried to pair the maroon with another juvenile maroon in a
quarantine tank, but they would not accept each other. The new one was about a third smaller than the large (3") maroon. I tried again with a 3/4" baby maroon and the two paired up within a week in the main system. During the pairing up process, the larger maroon became very aggressive towards the Oscellaris, but, it was restricted to posturing - no biting.
After the three clowns settled down again, I decided to try pairing the oscellaris. (I've been trying to pair up the clowns for almost a year, but had a lot of problems with unhealthy stock and incompatibility. That's how I ended up with two species-I wasn't having any luck with my oscies, so I bought maroons. Believe me, maroons are much more difficult)
The new oscellaris was also a tiney fish and paired easily with the 2 1/2" female. I first quarantined the new oscie in a clear 2ga container placed in the main tank. This way, while baby was being de-bugged, all the other fish got a week to look him over and beat on the plexiglass tank. Once released into the tank the new fish dove into the female oscellaris' home coral-a huge colt - where they played tag around the branches for a few days befor the female fully accepted him.
The female maroon became very aggressive during this pairing up, also. Not only was she 'out to get' the new fish, but, she took her aggression out on every other fish in the tank, also. What saved the little oscellaris was the terretoriality of the female oscellaris. I don't believe she was conciously protecting the little one, instead she was just 'keeping that maroon bi#@% outta her house"!
Everyone has settled down again, and although there are constant conflicts at the territory boundary line between the female oscellaris and the female maroon, it is all harmless posturing, still. I do not, however, expect this relative peacefullness to last indefinately. My original intention was not to house both species of clownfish together, but rather to house the pair of maroons in the main tank and the pair of oscellaris in the refugium. I'm just waiting to see if a
colt coral will survive under the 65w home depot light on the refugium befor I put the oscies in.
I thought I'd share this experience since you want to try two species of clown in the same tank. My situation seems to be working temporarily, but, I am very sure that it will not last. Also, as in your case, if I had the maroon first and then tried to add the oscellaris, I do not believe my oscie would still be around.
The differance in behavior that I have seen between the maroons and the oscellaris (skunks would be very similar to oscellaris IMO) is like night and day. When the oscellaris feel threatened or are defending thier terretories, they use highly exaggerated posturing including rolling and submissive shuddering and the occasional half-hearted strike. The maroon on the other hand, is an 'in your face' aggressor and will strike visciously and repeatedly to drive an intruder away. If the fish tries to take an aggressive stand, the maroon will launch into a circling, biting, tearing attack until one or the other flees. I believe the reason my maroons and oscellaris get along as well as they do is because the oscellaris will not engage in actual combat but always backs down.
HTH
