Adding new fish to a tank with 2 clowns

[D.back]

Hi,

I have a quick question to you more experienced reefers. I have a 29 gallon reef tank. At first it was cycled for 2 months with a spike, then 2 small clowns were introduced with a clean up crew, later a few soft corals. A month after that I added a small Royal Gramma, but 2 days later he died - stuck into a small recess in the porous pukani rock. I added a bigger, strong and healthy looking Gramma. He was doing great for a week, out in the open a lot, feeding well. The female clown, what usually is pretty tough on the male seemed to be peaceful with the gramma. The one day I found the gramma hiding with a chewed up tail fin. The next day the fin was nearly completely missing. Now I can't even find the Gramma any more, likely dead. My question is, what to do with the clowns? I want to add more fish....After some research, here are my ideas:

1. Return the clowns, get new fish, add new clowns when all other desired fish are in.
2. Return the clowns, get new gramma and clowns, introduce them together.
3. Return the female clown, add new fish to the male.
4. Take clowns out, put new fish in, return the same clowns a few days later.

I eventually want to keep 1-2 clowns for sure... I spent a lot of time trying to figure out an aquascape and formed the pukani exactly to fit my imagined scape, so I don't really want to rearrange the rocks.

My parameters are: 29G, Reef octopus 1000 HOB skimmer, 18% water changes every week, live rock, ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 5-10, salinity 1.026, temp 80F.

2 clowns, 1 likely dead gramma somewhere, 4 small zoa frags, GSP, 1 big red legged hermit, 4 scarlet hermits, 10 mini blue legged hermits, 8 snails, 1 urchin

Any advice would be helpful...
Thanks

 

[D.back]

PS. I'm not sure if it makes a difference, but I'm talking about a standard, longitudinal tank, not a cube. It has 2 big rock structures, the bigger has a tunnel and some smaller hiding places, the smaller has multiple large communicating caves.

 

[nereefpat]

What species of clowns? It's my understanding that a pair of perculas or ocellaris can take over a tank your size, and a pair of maroons or clarkiis can take over a space several times your size.

 

[TokiHacker]

What other fish are you wanting to add?

 

[Hal]

What species of clowns? It's my understanding that a pair of perculas or ocellaris can take over a tank your size, and a pair of maroons or clarkiis can take over a space several times your size.

+1 clowns can be territorial.

If you still want to add fish, I highly recommend an acclimation tank. Buy a critter keeper plastic cage from your local petstore. Add extra holes if needed. Drop it into your display tank with your new fish in the critter keeper. Leave the new fish in the critter keeper for about 3 days. Don't forget to feed it. During this time the clowns will see the fish and investigate, but won't be able to attack the new fish. Then when the new fish is finally released, the clowns have a better chance of ignoring it since they've become accustomed to it, and accustomed to not being able to attack it.

Since I've started doing this the "new fish aggression" has been cut down drastically.

 

[D.back]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the replies, the idea with the critter keeper seems promising and feasible. The clowns are ocellaris. Under ideal circumstances, I'd like to have at least 4 fish, the 2 clowns, one royal gramma and a banggai cardinal. Possibly, under certain circumstances, adding a 5th a lot later, depending on how stable water parameters are, likely only after adding a HOB refugium. That would likely be a small blenny or gobie of some kind. I think 4 would be a better overall number to shoot for though. If I end up keeping only the less aggressive clown, I'd add something else instead, like a wrasse of some kind for example.

In your experience, what happens if you get rid of the more aggressive clown? Will the other become more aggressive, or should he stay relatively docile?

 

[anbosu]

If you get rid of the female the other clown will become a female. Having a single clown instead of a pair may help, but it's no guarantee.