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Cultivated Reef

New clown question (and probably a Dottyback question)


ReefSafeSolutions

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ReefSafeSolutions

Hello everyone!

 

I picked up sweet black and white clown about a month ago and it has been doing really well. I had a McCosker's Flasher Wrasse in the tank (16 gallon) and it just didn't look happy, so we moved him to a bigger tank and he seems much happier now. But then the clown seemed really bored, so I figured I'd get another clown.

 

So I picked up a little orange clown, smaller than the black and white clown. At first they were buddies, swimming around together and seemingly having a great time. But now they seem to have separated. The black and white clown stays on the left side and the orange stays on the right. The b/w will cruise over and hang with the orange for a little bit, but then it will pick at the orange clown and chase it around, and then go back to the left side of the tank again.

 

Is this typical? I'm sure clowns won't always pair up together, but I'm hoping this behavior will end soon. The orange clown was swimming in the frogspawn which I loved, but the frogspawn is on the left side of the tank and the orange clown won't go over there anymore.

 

And while I have your attention, I thought I'd ask about adding a Bicolor Dottyback to the mix and calling it good for fish (I'd start doing weekly 20% water changes to keep things clean). I know clowns are semi-aggressive so it seems like they'd do well enough together.

 

Thanks!

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The B/W clown is going to make sure the (hopefully) smaller regular clown is submissive, then they'll pair up. If the B/W female is old enough, they could be breeding within half a year.

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I had a Bi Color Dottyback with a clown once. I had to change the rockscape every couple months as the Dottyback grew more and more mean, they are amazing fish but a constant headache.

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CronicReefer

More than likely the clowns will pair up just give it time. As for dottybacks I keep a springeri with my clowns and hes well behaved, actually hes pretty scared of my clowns once he realized he can't bully my female. Be warned they will eat pods and small worms (even bristleworms) and dig through your sand bed from time to time hunting for them if they can find any on the rocks.

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ReefSafeSolutions

Thanks for the replies...I'll give the clowns some more time and see what happens. They seem to swim around together at night, but during the day they tend to stay separated more often than not.

 

If they end up pairing after a few weeks I'll consider getting a dottyback (and likely a protein skimmer) but I definitely want to wait and watch the clowns' behavior before I add anything else.

 

EDIT, should have mentioned, the new clown is indeed smaller than the B/W. About 2/3 the size of the B/W.

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ReefSafeSolutions

Well, things have seemed to have gotten worse! The BW clown won't stop harassing the little orange one...to the point that the orange fish would hide under rocks and even tuck itself under the hairy mushroom. The little guy just looks terrified all the time!

 

We pulled the BW clown out and put it in my dad's tank (with two large clowns) to see how the smaller clown would react, and it's been out and about and seemingly very happy. The BW was getting harassed by the other clowns in my dad's tank though, so we put a little plexiglass divide in the tank to keep them from killing the BW. I think I'm gonna take the BW back and see if I can exchange it for another little orange one..

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