I need to replace one of my Perculas...:(

[jscarlata]

I was away fora week over the 4th holiday, tank was setup and fine, came home and it was perfect, no mess, no outbreaks nothing out of the ordinary...Monday night i noticed that one of my clowns had not come forward at feeding time...a looked all over the tank and couldnt see it...looked behind the tank a few times before i found the little guy...must have been there for days because it was all dried up. I have no idea what happened. my tank is covered by a BRS clear screen mesh, there is a 2" wide opening along the back glass...

Anyway, i want to get another fish ASAP, i can have my QT tank filled and running tonight if i wanted...ive had a filter pad for the QT tank in the DT sump for over a month. But i want to make sure i dont do anything to upset the other clown...is there a proven forumal for adding a clown fish to an established tank?
i had these guys a little less than a year, they were the first fish in the tank. they were slow growers, the one that is left is the bigger of the 2, they never showed any signs of mating or courting. the one that jumped was smaller, but was growing faster than the other one for whatever that is worth.
My preference is to get another picasso, but at this point my main criteria would be a wild caught fish, perc or a perc variant. I want a WC one because ive had a nice sized Gigantea for a few months and the clowns i have showed no interest yet, so i hoped a WC fish would be able to teach the tank raised guy about the nem...any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated...

To add, one of my LFS has 2 percuals that they have labeled as wild caught, one is much darker than the other, and both ap-pear the same size (they are in different tanks). the thing that made me opause was that they are each about the same size, maybe even a little bigger than the clown i have...

[Mavrk]

My rule is to always get a juvenile when adding a second clownfish. By the time you finish QT, the one in your tank could turn female if she is not already (she is bigger, so I would guess she is).

[jscarlata]

If the size of the new fish is same or larger what are the likely outcomes? Do the two battle for dominance or will it end up a fight to the death

[mikelee35]

If you add a larger fish it will probably be a female, and if yours was the larger of the two fish then its probably a female, Clowns can go from juvi to male then female, but once female they can't go back to male, if you add one the same size or larger more than likely one will end up dead

[Whip316]

The males start turning into female as 2 weeks. Once they start there is no stopping.
I would either get a juvi or replace the pair.
If you get a juvi I would get a black pond basket. Clip it on your tank and buy or borrow a bta and toss the bta and the juvi in it till it goes in the nem. Then once the juvi starts hosting after its released in the tank, the other will follow.
Or net the first one and put both in.

[jscarlata]

Ok I get it. I did not know they stayed female...just made the search a bit harder. I might be able to net the fish I have...decisions.
Well, thanks for the info everyone, much appreciated

[westohooligan]

You and I are in the same boat. I just lost my male, he jumped; no joke, while I was at Lowe's picking up stuff for a mesh top. Super hard to find percs around here too. The female had just accepted the h. crispa as her host, but for some reason, he would just not go to it.

Just be patient and wait until you find a juvenile, especially if you're female looks good/unique.

[jscarlata]

It's a tough call...she's a nice looking clown but has never really settled in, she tends to cruise the front glass all day...she never seemed comfy...for lack of a better word.
I'm so undecided. While I'd love to splurge and get a real nice high end pair from ibluewater or donis, I don't know if I really want to blow 300plus on fish...at the same time, the pair I bought were sort of budget, and one was not really Picasso and the other gas a bit of an overbite...they were also extremely slow growing, much more so than everything else in my tank
Don't know what to do..

[Whip316]

You don't have to blow the bank on high end picasso's. A jet black pair of onyx or even lower grade Picasso are very pretty. I seen some grade B picasso's put higher end ones to shame. Check alpha corals. He has some sweet pairs and singles.

[Blitzburggirl]

Oddly enough, I had a pair of Doni's. She has different grades... Mine were an A and a B. I love all the black on hers and it turns out that the one that became male is the B. And was by far the prettier clown. The female was the A. She died about 2 months ago after over 3 years :(, and I'm torn between getting another itty bitty picasso from Doni to pair up with my male (who I suspect is now female, or at least cross dressing a bit...) or getting him an onyx percula juvenile to pair with.

Moral of the story, the "low end" are sometimes the prettiest :) Hopefully you'll have them for a long time, so get the kind you want :)

[jscarlata]

Thanks for the advice. I agree with you both...I like semi Picasso better than premium or A grade...
Here's a question, lest
Say you have an older group of fish in a store tank, so they are 2"plus, and you take a male From the group and put it in your tank with a female of the same size or smaller..will the bigger fish still submit?

[CoralReeferGal]

I have heard not to mix types of clowns; you don't want a clarkii and a perc, as an example, so you may be better off sticking with a pair of the same species (is that the right term? LOL sorry, it's late and I'm up due to pain... ugh) Anyway, I had a pair of ocellaris, and only one would host in our nem. The other one would stay near the top of the tank for the most part, and/or cruise around all day "exploring" the tank for a good 3 months. We had an issue where fish disappeared, so I can't say for sure what happened to either one of them. Also from what I've been told, you don't want to add one that is the same size as the one you have; get either larger or smaller due to aggression. Since the one you have in there now (should you decide to keep her) has been there for so long, I personally would recommend getting one smaller (someone please correct me if I'm wrong), I would think she may have some territorial issues, even with a bigger one, since she was there for so long, and the bigger one may be aggressive, just because its bigger. Point on nems though, even if you get one WC to "teach" the other to host in the nem, she still may not bother with it. Like I said, only one of ours ever bothered with the nem, the other one wouldn't go near it. (got the nem and both clowns at the same time)