Adding a larger clownfish

[ErinL]

Hey everyone,

I've been a long time lurker, and have had a 120g fowlr for about 5 years, I also have a 29 biocube reef that has been set up for about 8 months. Everything was going great until about a month ago when my heater blew up. It was almost a total loss. In fact, the only survivor was 1 of my black and white ocellaris clowns. I had the pair for around 3 months, and this fish is about 1.5" long. I had my lfs ( which I work at) order me another one. And the fish that arrived is bigger than the one I have now. It's approx 2". Does anyone have any advice on adding this fish? Or do you guys think its a horrible idea? My thoughts were to swap them for about a week, so th new clown will be in the biocube, and the other will be in my qt. do you think this would cause issues? I'm not sure if at this size, it would have turned female already.

 

Thanks in advance!

[patback]

Which was the one that died?

[Seamonkey84]

How long have you had the male and how long was it alone for? If he's young still, under 1.4-2 years old it should be fine as long as it hasn't been more than two months.

[ErinL]

The two original clowns were both the same size, about 1.5", and I only had them for a few months. This one has been by itself for about a month, since the tank crash. It's still small.

[Seamonkey84]

Should be fine then, less issues with aggression with that actually, at least when indie the same thing. I split up my pair of black and a regular orange. The black male was by himself for 3 weeks and I added a black ice that was bigger than him, he didn't show much aggression towards his new girl friend.

[ErinL]

Thanks so much. I'll switch them tomorrow. After the new one is settled, I might put the original clown in a breeder net in my tank so they can get used to each other

[gonzalez78]

Hey everyone,

I've been a long time lurker, and have had a 120g fowlr for about 5 years, I also have a 29 biocube reef that has been set up for about 8 months. Everything was going great until about a month ago when my heater blew up. It was almost a total loss. In fact, the only survivor was 1 of my black and white ocellaris clowns. I had the pair for around 3 months, and this fish is about 1.5" long. I had my lfs ( which I work at) order me another one. And the fish that arrived is bigger than the one I have now. It's approx 2". Does anyone have any advice on adding this fish? Or do you guys think its a horrible idea? My thoughts were to swap them for about a week, so th new clown will be in the biocube, and the other will be in my qt. do you think this would cause issues? I'm not sure if at this size, it would have turned female already.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

You work at an lfs and don't know the answer and no one else there can tell you? Sorry for this sounding mean but I was pissed off by some members here.

[ErinL]

My experience is when trying to add a second clown, you always add a smaller one to avoid the risk of ending up with two females, which would be a disaster. Mainly, what I was looking for was some othe opinions since I have not been able to find out at which size ocellaris clowns are considered female. If this was not a fish ordered specifically for me, I would not risk it. The reason I posted on the forum was to get other people's input and experience. That's all. And yes, I have a good amount of saltwater experience and knowledge, but by no means do I know everything. I would rather ask for help then hurt a fish.

[Seamonkey84]

The same thing happened to me , I wanted a black ice to pair with my black and white. He had been alone in a tank for three weeks, so when I unpacked the box and saw it was albot 50% bigger than my black and white, I got nervous as well. But seeing that my black and white is only about 1.5 inch and about one year old or under, he didn't change into a female yet. So when I introduced the new one he didn't attack, but took the sub role right away.

[ErinL]

That's what I'm hoping is going to happen.