Two pairs of clowns in a 50 Gal Tank

thebulkhimself · 09-03-2007, 09:27 AM

I have a pair of very small common percs and have a medium sized bubble tip anenome. I really really really want a pair of clowns that live in the anenome - I come to the resolution that my current clowns won't move to the anenome as they like staying at the top of the tank and the anenome lives at the bottom.

Could I have two pairs of clowns in the tank (eg get another pair) and what variety of clownfish would be my best chance of having them host in the anenome????

please help

ScruffyRubicon · 09-03-2007, 09:36 AM

Best of luck in that venture. I tried 2 pair of clowns in my 125. The first 3 fish were OK but when I added the 4th clown and they paired up, the fighting began.

As far as hosting with an anemone, I have had true and false percs and a GSM host in them.

VWD · 09-03-2007, 11:39 AM

Adding clowns to a tank with clowns is risky business, Clown are and can be brutal to other clowns. If I was going to try it , I would remove the first pair for awhile and then re do the rock work and introduce them all at the same time, But then again, You still don't know if the new ones will host.

cath · 09-03-2007, 11:43 AM

Maybe the clowns are just picky about their host homes. Although I only have one, she used to love either the colt or a nice fat leather.

Reef-Keeper · 09-03-2007, 11:44 AM

it could take the clowns that you have now years to host in the anemone. you could try this ... take the fish AND anemone out of the tank and put them in a smaller tank. this will give them a smaller area to host with the anemone, kind of show them where it is, the rest should come naturally to them. i usually advise to stick them in a LARGE specimen container for a couple of hours (while the container is attached to the top of the tank with the lights off).

Loverotties · 09-03-2007, 01:29 PM

clowns are strang,it's a 50% .

fish.freak · 09-03-2007, 04:35 PM

its not 50/50 if you get the natural symbionts. perculas host carpets and ritteri (both difficult to keep) in the wild, but may go to bta's in a tank but that is more like 50/50. gold strips will host bta but may get too mean for the other clowns.

YiNYaNg · 09-03-2007, 04:59 PM

My first maroon clown was mean as hell and when I added a smaller one half its size the big one punked, chased, nipped the smaller one almost to death. I learned this trick from my old buddy..... Its got to be punked so it'll accept others since it'll be put into check so that it knows its not the toughtest guy around and will need friends of its own kind. I threw in one of my really mean Clarkii clown fish and indeed the bigger maroon got punked. A day later I took the Clarkii out and threw back in the smaller maroon and indeed right away the bigger one started rubbing and liking the smaller one. For groups this might not work but for one for sure it'll work if you can find a meaner different clown fish to throw in for a day.

jrpdriver · 09-03-2007, 05:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fish.freak

its not 50/50 if you get the natural symbionts. perculas host carpets and ritteri (both difficult to keep) in the wild, but may go to bta's in a tank but that is more like 50/50. gold strips will host bta but may get too mean for the other clowns.

I was going to make this same comment

You would be better off getting a deifferent anemone rather than another pair of clowns. The two types that fish freak listed are perfect choices

toniell · 09-03-2007, 05:32 PM

For some reason that does not sound very logical.

jrpdriver · 09-03-2007, 05:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by toniell

For some reason that does not sound very logical.

Why is that?

fish.freak · 09-03-2007, 05:37 PM

I would not get either anemone unless you have metal hylide lighting and a great skimmer, even then they are iffy at best.

jrpdriver · 09-03-2007, 05:48 PM

Thank you captain obvious, any coral, or anemone, or fish are subject to the correct conditions and are iffy if you do not give them what they need.

But as long as we are discussing lighting. Having metal halides is not a prerequisite, although the correct halides would work great. But...if the tank was shallow enough Power compacts or VHO would work great too.

fish.freak · 09-03-2007, 05:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jrpdriver

Thank you captain obvious

thebulkhimself · 09-03-2007, 07:13 PM

Haha,

Yes I have a shallow tank with 4 39W T5's and a EV120 running at about 500GPH.

I think I'm going to try the specimen container idea ( thanks Bobby ) - thats if I can catch the clowns without scaring the absolute #### out of the blue tang.

Wish me luck

Thanks for the responses