27 clowns in the same tank 27 months~Thread of the Month

[BonsaiNut]

great info! thanks.. do you know if this is true for other types clowns? (not maroons).

Clowns are so beautiful and easy to care for... I might just sell all my fish and get a tank full of clowns someday

Tank raised clowns, by their very nature, have been raised artificially in close quarters that they would never have experienced in the wild.

A. ocellaris and A. percula are the most common tank-raised clowns because of their small size, easy breeding habit, and the fact that there is a large market for them. They also happen to be the least aggressive of the clown species.

On the other end of the spectrum (as far as aggressiveness goes) are maroons. I have seen a tank full of maroons somewhere (I think the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago) but it was a LARGE tank (1000 gallons or more). If you started with tons of juveniles, you'd probably be ok (depending on tank size). The issue always comes down to the first pair that matures and starts to spawn. In the case of A. percula, the adults are small and almost the same size as the juveniles. An adult female maroon can be a smasher at 6" or more. I have seen them draw blood from a human arm. So perhaps you may have a problem when the dominant female is so much larger than all the other fish...

 

[blbarber]

Hey Mobert. Its been a few months since your last update. Anything new in the tank? How are the babies doing? Nems making a recovery after the crab removal?

 

[mobert]

Hey Mobert. Its been a few months since your last update. Anything new in the tank? How are the babies doing? Nems making a recovery after the crab removal?

Hi, thanks for your interest. Tank is pretty much the same except more nuisance algae and aptaisia. Elder clowns celebrated their 10th birthdays last August and the younger clowns are now about two years old. The one chewed up anemone has made a full recovery but my green one is not doing so well so I am not convinced the crab is out of the tank or if we just pulled out an empty shell.



Too many clownfish to count so I can't say if I've lost some or not.

 

[blbarber]

Any thoughts on the BRS tank's progress?

 

[mobert]

Any thoughts on the BRS tank's progress?

Have they made progress since they've added the clowns a year ago? I like the first video where they hit many key points when setting up the tank but I haven't seen an update since they added the clowns.

 

[mobert]

A daytime picture:

 

[davocean]

Oh those pics are fantastic!

 

[davocean]

??? I think you may have been confused about something? Keeping dozens of juvenile clowns (particularly tank-raised) in a large tank is not unusual - you can go to any public aquarium in the world and see the same thing. I can show you photos from the wild of fields of BTA's with tons of clowns in them.

While it may be common in the wild, or in a giant public aquarium, Mobert is the first person here on the boards to do so in an average size private tank.
If you check the start date of this thread, it was long before many others have tried this, so it was a pretty big deal then, and still is IMO.
It's probably my very favorite thread here on RC

 

[blbarber]

BRS has made a total of 6 videos on their clown harem tank. Check them out on YouTube. (linked below). I would be curious how you think their tank is doing and what you might do differently.


https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBaMLrfToJyxQ2ssQRPnmwFOJ2Qp8NBHi

 

[shifty51008]

Imo haveing a clownfish tank with many clowns is easy as long as they are all from the same batch of eggs. Ive had 120 clowns in a 40 gal tank for over a year with no deaths.

 

[davocean]

^^Cool, do you have a thread to share on that?

 

[shifty51008]

No sorry, they wernt actually supposed to be in the tank that long but due to my wife's and my situation we just wernt able to drive the 3 hours to sell them. They are still in the tank and can take pics but its nothing special like moberts.

 

[mobert]

BRS has made a total of 6 videos on their clown harem tank. Check them out on YouTube. (linked below). I would be curious how you think their tank is doing and what you might do differently.


https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBaMLrfToJyxQ2ssQRPnmwFOJ2Qp8NBHi

Thanks for the link. I had missed seeing the last video. The tank looks great! I wish I had a refugium with rolling chaeto.

 

[Kyl]

BRS is going to do a video update on the harem in the next few months

 

[blbarber]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C61DTnWKGjc

Here is another mini update on the BRS Clown tank. The video is about T5 lighting, but towards the mid to end (18 min or so) of the video they provide some good shots of their Clown Tank.

 

[ThRoewer]

Imo haveing a clownfish tank with many clowns is easy as long as they are all from the same batch of eggs. Ive had 120 clowns in a 40 gal tank for over a year with no deaths.

When I was breeding ocellaris, percula, clarkii and others I would keep several hundred of them in 160 liter tanks (I had a whole wall of those and thousands of clowns. Percula and ocellaris hatch sizes were usually between 300 and 400 after metamorphosis, while the clarkii yielded up to 800 - you run out of space quickly!).

I had clarkii and percula and clarkii and ocellaris mixed without issues (though for practical reasons never mixed ocellaris and percula). They were all from different batches, just sorted by size.

As long as you keep them at a sufficient density the aggression will be distributed evenly and everything is fine. Though as soon as you get down to numbers where they can stake out territories things go bad quickly.

I would also advise against ever trying this with maroons. The once I had started fights to the death the moment they were out of metamorphosis. By the time I realized this I was down to a handful.

 

[m0nkie]

When I was breeding ocellaris, percula, clarkii and others I would keep several hundred of them in 160 liter tanks (I had a whole wall of those and thousands of clowns. Percula and ocellaris hatch sizes were usually between 300 and 400 after metamorphosis, while the clarkii yielded up to 800 - you run out of space quickly!). .

Hi. I'm thinking of adding a group of Clarkii to my 150gal. Wondering if you can give some insights.

I have 4 carpet anemones inside for them to get hosted in. What is a good number to get? I was thinking 6.. even numbers better? or odd?

also, would it be ok to add other fish? or does it work best with clowns only.

 

[ThRoewer]

Any other clowns in that tank?

Clarkii live sometimes in larger numbers in a single anemone or anemone fields. You will get a pair and maybe a couple of accepted juveniles/immature males. I would try to get a group of individuals as small as possible, ideally straight from the breeder. That way they have time to get to know each other and grow up together. I would try to get them as soon as they go after frozen food. Mine took frozen copepods after 5 to 7 days, though that may be too young. At a minimum they should be through metamorphosis and settled to the ground.

I made a test with a 10 days old batch of ocellaris, and they would go into an anemone (magnifica) right away. It looked quite impressive to have a cloud of a few hundred baby anemonefish all over the anemone (though the anemone didn't like it too much)

With enough large anemones (4 gigs should be plenty) I would up your number to something between 3 to 5 baby fish per anemone.

 

[m0nkie]

thanks! I was hoping to get some other fish in there, not just a pure clown tank. It would be cool to have 20 clarkiis haha.. I'll probably try 6-8 and see where that leads me. no other clowns in the tank. I will probably add some wrasse and other beneficial fish to help maintain the reef.

 

[lmforbis]

I do love the BRS clown tank. Every time I go to their offices to pick up an order, I get to watch that tank. Not sure when they switched it to T5s. I was there a couple weeks ago and it was the first thing I noticed. It had much stronger colors when it was under the LEDs. To me, compared to how it looked before the switch, it looks kind of washed out. The nems seem very happy just not as pleasing to my eyes.