Bicinctus owners, I need advice: adult pair, or 2 juveniles?

[velvetelvis]

I'm planning to buy two captive-bred bicinctus from Chadwick Laboratory at Auburn, and I'm trying to figure out if it would be better to get an established adult pair, or two juveniles.

The student who's raising the clownfish emailed me and suggested buying the pair in order to avoid aggression issues when they get into a new environment. I was thinking more along the lines of two juveniles of different sizes. I'm planning to get a BTA clone sometime this spring, and I don't want to risk having it battered to death by a too-big clownfish. I've also heard that large pairs ship poorly, although maybe that doesn't apply to CB fish.

On the other hand, bicinctus are from the clarkii complex, and probably have the combative clarkii personality.

For those of you who have kept bicinctus, which do you think would be the better option?

 

[Winwood]

I have only kept two WC juveniles and the larger of the two was very hard on the smaller one.

 

[velvetelvis]

Thanks for the feedback. They have younger adults already paired up, so I'm going to go with a set of those.

Another question: My tank is a 50G (24" x 24" x 20"). I've seen/heard varying estimates on how big these fish get--anywhere from 4" to almost 6"! Do you think a tank this size is going to be big enough for a pair of adult bicinctus? Not just adequate, but comfortable? Thanks!

 

[Joe S]

A 50 gal is plenty for an adult pair. Minimum size is 30-40 gal depending on the source. I have seen healthy spawning adult pairs in 20 gal tanks.

 

[velvetelvis]

That is good news.

Thanks for the advice, guys. I've been planning to get these fish for almost a year now, but it's been a long process, due to a protracted tank build. I'm pretty excited.

 

[Whip316]

i had an adult pair and they were pretty docile and i miss them. i had them in a breeding tank and they were happy in a pot and about 10g of water. they had the fork tail thingy going on which was cool. if you use a bta for them to host in is a good thing. it will keep them more on the yellow side and wont allow them to get their normal very dark brown color you see in most adults. its working well on my tricinctus pair.

 

[velvetelvis]

i had an adult pair and they were pretty docile and i miss them. i had them in a breeding tank and they were happy in a pot and about 10g of water. they had the fork tail thingy going on which was cool. if you use a bta for them to host in is a good thing. it will keep them more on the yellow side and wont allow them to get their normal very dark brown color you see in most adults. its working well on my tricinctus pair.

Interesting. I've seen people on the forums saying that their ocellaris and perculas went through some color change after being hosted in certain anemones, but I'd never heard of the same happening to bicinctus. I am planning to get them a cloned BTA from another RC member once my tank has been set up longer (maybe this summer; after a couple of bad experiences I'm a little gun-shy when it comes to anemones).

I also recall seeing online (don't remember where) that the melanistic bicinctus come from shallower areas, whereas the yellow variant was found in deeper water. Which makes sense, if the melanin serves a protective function for them as it does for humans.