Advice for Keeping Multiple Clownfish?

[teddscau]

Hey everyone. I was planning on only keeping a pair, but then I saw all the different designer clownfish that the wholesaler had... Long story short, we're getting a DaVinci B, a black ice, a wide bar gladiator, and a naked clownfish (they're all Ocellaris). They'll be quarantined at the supplier for a month before we bring them home.

I'll be adding all four to our 75g display at once. I'm also hoping to have them all quarantined together at the supplier. Is this a good idea, or should I let them meet each other for the first time in my display tank? As far as I know, all of the clownfish are younger individuals.

To describe the layout of my tank, it has three separate "territories", if you will. The left side has a couple of caves, Caulerpa, and a couple of gorgonians. The centre has more of an open sandbed to hang out in. And finally, the right side has different kenyans and leathers, as well as another cave. As the corals continue to grow, they should create even more visual barriers, further reducing the stress of the inhabitants (not that they're stressed). There's currently two firefish, four pyjama cardinalfish, and a number of sessile invertebrates in the tank. I'm hoping the clownfish will all get along and form a family group of sorts, with a dominant female, a breeding male, and two non-breeding males.

I'll be attaching frags to the overflow box and the back wall of the tank as well, creating an even stronger sense of security, providing even more areas to explore and forage. Some time in the future, I'm going to buy one of those long-polyp toadstool leathers. I don't expect them to necessarily host in it, seeing as they're captive-bred, but if they decide to, that would be awesome. I did have a fairly large devil's hand leather, but most of it rotted off when Dad left the skimmer on for several weeks straight. I only managed to save a couple of its fingers -_-

So, what do you guys think? Any advice would be great.

 

[D-Nak]

Bad idea. You'll end up with two fish. One male and one female.

My advice is to read the TONS of threads/posts that discuss not having more than a pair of clowns in a tank.

 

[teddscau]

The morphs I'm buying look distinct from one another, so I'm wondering if that will make a difference. The wide bar black gladiator is black and white, the DaVinci B looks the most like your typical Ocellaris, the black ice is mostly white, and the naked is completely orange. I feel there might be more of an issue having the gladiator in the group, as it looks too much like your typical clown.

For generations, each "breed" has been raised with its own breed. To them, Ocellaris clownfish look like either X designer breed or your typical wild phenotype. While they'll definitely still recognize one another as being Ocellaris, my hope is that because they look so widely different from what they understand other clownfish to look like (in terms of colour pattern), they won't be as aggressive.

I'm not arguing with what you're saying about it typically being a terrible idea. If worst comes to worst, we can always move one or two of them to a different tank, or rehome them. However, if everything works out, I think it'll be worth it.

 

[D-Nak]

You're assuming that clownfish use visual cues to establish their hierarchy. My understanding is that sounds they emit as well as smell play a larger role. In other words, they probably don't care what the other clownfish look like. Furthermore, most animals are attracted to things that look different, not the same, so one could assume that fish that look drastically different are the ones that will get picked on.

A friend of mine tried (unsuccessfully) to do what you are planning to attempt:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=25542877#post25542877

The only people who have had any success with housing multiple clowns in the same tank are those who created "harem" tanks with 15+ more fish from the same clutch. This means that they all, for the most part, look the same.

 

[lapin]

You would have better luck with more than 1 pair of clowns, if you have a long tank. Lets say 8'.

 

[teddscau]

Okay, so it definitely sounds like we'll be adding them all to the display tank and seeing who the dominant clown gets along with the best, then removing the two rejects. Well, it might not be a harem, but it's not a half bad way of getting a male/female pair. Then, hopefully the "rejects" pair up in our other tank, and whichever pair we like the most we'll keep in the display tank, then we can sell off the other pair (after making sure both pairs are indeed "pairs").

 

[Uncle99]

That will create a stressful environment which will likely end badly.
The immune systems of the losers may allow Ick to take hold and you may end up with no pairs.

 

[lifeoffaith]

Okay, so it definitely sounds like we'll be adding them all to the display tank and seeing who the dominant clown gets along with the best, then removing the two rejects. Well, it might not be a harem, but it's not a half bad way of getting a male/female pair. Then, hopefully the "rejects" pair up in our other tank, and whichever pair we like the most we'll keep in the display tank, then we can sell off the other pair (after making sure both pairs are indeed "pairs").

You have a better chance of losing two fish unfortunately. You may get lucky and be able to catch two before they die, but they'll probably already be beat up.