clownfish questions

[Moonstream]

Can 3 diffrent colored ocllaris clowns live in the same tank for ever? Tank is 29 gallons. I want:
1 teardrop
1 black
1 normal
Is this Okay?

[snagged by reef]

i had 3 in my 46g bowfront 2 of them killed the 3rd.....

[Moonstream]

Okay, will dif. colors pair up? What about keeping a pair of teardrops and a pair of blacks?

[Shagsbeard]

Clowns are territorial. Like all damsels, they'll fight to the death to defend their turf... "turf"... funny word to apply to a fish. Three in a 75 gal might have enough space to consider their own, but I'd doubt it. If you wanted to try, you should create three distict piles of live rock, rather than one big pile. That would make them feel safer with their own place.

[sir_dudeguy]

in only a 29, i would not even attempt it. Thats just big enough for 2 of them when they're paired off...throw in another and it'll be dead pretty quickly as soon as 2 of them are paired. And its usually not possible to mix colors either...i think i've seen it a couple times where they got like a black ocellaris and orange ocellaris, but still...not worth it IMO. Personally i dont think that really looks good even...just weird.

As for a pair of teardrops and a pair of blacks...bad idea. 3 is bad...4 is even worse, because when you get 2 pairs....not good..

[Moonstream]

Okay, could I keep 2 clowns in the 29 with 2 diffrent piles of rock?

[Moonstream]

Okay how bout 1 tear drop?

[sir_dudeguy]

well a single pair of clowns would be fine (maybe not the larger ones like maroons though), just once you get more than 2 clowns you're going to have problems, specially in that small of a tank.

[Moonstream]

Okay, so let me get this straight. 2 Diffrent color clowns won't pair up
no more than 1 pair in the tank.
1 more question. Could 2 very tiny ones that are not paired up, live in the tank togeather? Dif colors?

[sir_dudeguy]

while there small, it probably wont matter as much. But hopefully you've got plans to move one of them. IMO they're more interesting when they're paired of the way they should be anyways... but thats just me ;)

I dont know if its so much that 2 different colors WONT pair up, but its unlikely and if they dont, it would probably not be so great for them

[ArgonDreams]

Some simple rules:

On tanks less the 100 Gallons stick to 1 or 2 clowns.

>Try< to keep the same species in a tankj w/ 2 clowns unless the tank is large

Different Species clowns tend not to pair up and as they develop they may fight and kill each other.

If you have two clowns that pair they tend to amp up their aggression to other clowns, hence the "keep it to 2 clowns of the same species" recommendation.

So in short, in short I recommend keeping either 1 or 2 clowns of the same species in the same tank. Black and Orange Occellaris is ok though if you want a different "look".

Finally, this is by no means the "law". A very vocal minority has had it work with multiples in the past, but there is no proven long term success with this.

[sir_dudeguy]

I think you put it best argon ;) And to add to that, even if the tank is over 100g, they're still gonna run into each other SOMETIME down the road, so just remember that and dont be surprised if 2 of your 4 clowns in a 200g tank end up dead someday haha :)

[mantis32]

I have two clowns in my tank false perc., but the store I got them from had only the two in a tank for several months and they may be a mated pair.

i wouldn't do more than two of the same breed.

Side Note: One of mine decided to carpet surf yesterday...

[jthao]

clowns are really cool when they pair up. I would try to find a pair or buy two baby clowns of the same species, because they'll eventually pair up. 1 clown of each specie (1 tomato/ 1 bw, etc.) wouldn't be as nice imo. if you're going to keep two, keep a pair of the same specie.

[kevin2000]

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=245520