Do Fish Need Company?

[gummi]

I had 3 fish: 2 percula clowns and 1 yellow tang. The tang introduced ich into my system and I've now lost the yellow tang and the small clown.

I've found the clowns to be very social with me and with the other fish. The two clowns hung out a lot at first and when the small one died, he started hanging out with the yellow tang. When the tang died he now looks kind of sad/lonely in that big tank with nobody else around... he's hanging out with cleaner shrimp now.

So my question is - do fish need 'company'? I dont want to add anything until my Ich treatment is finished and to make sure the clown survives and all is well "for now".

If it helps:

65 gallon, 20gallon sump (48X18)
Temp: 80
Am: 0
Nit: 0
Nitrate: 10
Calcium: 380 - 400
Alk: 10
Salinity: 1.025
90lbs LR, 5lbs LS in fuge
Euroreef RS100
2" sand bed
3 conch
10 Trochus snails
2 cleaner shrimp
5 nassarius snails
2 blue legged hermits
1 mexican turbo snail

 

[Snowboarda42]

sure, couldn't hurt. Unless you get something that's gonna fight with it.

I'd get another clown for it, make sure you QT it for ich before you put it in.

 

[Sk8r]

Another clown would be my vote. YOur guy will turn female if he/she isn't already, and they'll get along fine.

Fish need, for mental health, enough rocks to enable them to go around and in---folded space, in other words.
Some surprises---the presence of another fish.
Varying current---a seaswirl is good for that: for one thing, it gives them exercise, and for another, the current is as solid to a fish as a table and chair are to us: it varies the 'furniture' and provides mental stimulation, plus offers the chance of food wafting along with it.

Consider being locked in a bare room with no air movement and no activity out the one window for most of the day and that's pretty much it for a solo fish in a rockless, still tank.

 

[Sepeku]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10257141#post10257141 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Snowboarda42
sure, couldn't hurt. Unless you get something that's gonna fight with it.

I'd get another clown for it, make sure you QT it for ich before you put it in.

Word to the wise, make sure the new clown is smaller than yours to avoid any potential sex issues. You want a juvenile if at all possible.

 

[gummi]

Yes, I'd get a small clown. As for flow, my return does about 10X the show tank volume (7.5X total volume) along with a maxijet 1200 I have behind the rocks... so it should be fine.

 

[medawn]

I have a rabbit fish that always hung out with one fish, they would swim together and generally hang out. When the other fish died the rabbit fish would just go back and forth really fast in the tank. I got him another tang to hang out with and he is happy as a clam. Excuse my pun.

 

[awestruck]

I apologize if I am hijacking this thread but I have a related question: I have one saddle clown and would love to have another one. However, I was under the impression that you had to add both at the same time or one would kill the other. Any thoughts?