In 15 years I've never had a common clownfish

[mattsilvester]

Hi All,

In 15 years of keeping marine fish, I have never had a "common" Ocellaris Clownfish. They always look really colourful and active i nthe dealers tanks, so I think I'll get a couple.

The one thing I am "worried" about is that I have kept the maroon clownfish in the past, and found their behaviour / activity to be boring. He used to just wiggle around in the corner, as though yerning for an an anemone, and only swam around when feeding - this seemed like natural behaiour to be honest, but he just looked sad all the time. Do Ocellaris Clownfish "swim around" more? I don't plan on getting an anemone.

Should I just get two small ones and let them become a pair, or is it better to get a big one and a little one?
Are Ocellaris Clownfish like other clowns in terms of being slow growing?
I plan to get tank bred ones.

The alternative is to get a pair of Amphiprion frenatus - but are they really aggressive?

 

[Reefing Newbie]

I have had 3 different kinds of clownfish. The first was a regular ocellaris (lone male from when I got my set up). He swam all over my tank, but that was probably because he didn't have a partner to cuddle up with. He was hosted somewhat by a LTA (which died on me later). At the time I was unaware that you could get a smaller clown to pair with a larger one, so I went to the LFS and traded him in for a pair of true perculas.

They never stayed in one place, always roamed. The larger of the two killed the smaller one. I still have the larger one in a 12 gallon tank.

Now I have two black and white ocellaris clowns. I got them when they were about 3/4" from a local breeder. In the past 4 months they have grown quite a bit. The smaller one (will be male) has grown a little over a 1/2". The larger one (will be female, gets a boost of growth from being dominant not sure how that works) has grown between 1/2" and 3/4". These two don't hang out in one spot. They like their PVC elbow at night. During the day I see them out in the open playing around. They will go over to other pieces of PVC and rub against them.

Funny story with them: I put them in a tank when I got them with the same PVC elbow they have now. They associated with it. They went without the elbow for three months in a different tank. They got it back and it was instant attachment.

 

[randomfishguy85]

i have a single ocellaris clownfish, and he is very active. He is in a 135 gallon and uses the whole tank. More active than my wrasse, angels, puffer, or trigger

 

[SDguy]

Ocellaris or percs are great. Percs are slightly less aggressive. I think you'll be happy with either species. Nothing aggressive like maroons or tomatoes or clarkiis.

IME it's easiest to pair them by buying one larger on and one smaller one. This way it's usually clear to he fish which is dominant, so there is little/no fighting for dominance. Most stores around here sell pairs anyways... not sure if it's the same over there.

 

[Bnortz]

I have a pair of true percs and they are very active with great personality's.

 

[velvetelvis]

I've kept maroons in the past before and found them beautiful but boring, too. I like the idea of them, but as you've noticed, they pretty much hang out in one spot. Frenatus (and other members of the tomato and clarkii complexes) are better built for swimming longer distances, instead of either wiggling or darting, so they do tend to roam. They can be real characters, but they also get large and often very aggressive. I've seen grown men cower before the fury of a p!ssed-off, full-grown female tomato clown.

I've kept both the common orange ocellaris and the black Darwin morph, always in pairs, and enjoyed them both. IMO, clownfish are more fun in pairs, because you get to watch them interact.

One of my all-time favorite pairs of clownfish that I've ever kept was a pair of black ocellaris from Sustainable Aquatics. They were beautiful, lively, and personable (though the female was starting to nip some when I got near their RBTA). They now belong to another local reefer who's trying to breed them and raise the fry. I highly recommend them.

 

[mattsilvester]

Thanks everyone - I got two

I had a sort of lack-lustre attitude, if I must be honest..... it was my daughter with her nemo nemo nemo pestering that triggered this, and since they are cheap, harmless, and truthfully quite an attractive little fish, then I saw no harm in indulging her (and gaining political capital to leverage projects against the Mrs. resistance - LOL).

Now that I have them, they look great. They're in a q-tine tank now, but are out swimming, active, and seem to be doing great - I am very pleased.

I got two - the dealer had a million small (about 1.5") and and a million medium (about 2") sized ones in tanks next to each other. So I picked the biggest of the big ones, and a medium sized of the smaller...... hoping that hsould all but gaurantee me a potential male / female pair