Juvenile clown fish needs a mate

[Ironwood]

I'm new to saltwater fish/ reefing. My DT recently cycled so on Saturday I bought 2 Mocha clowns one of them was 1.25 inches and the other 1 inch. They seemed to be doing great eating ect. When I woke up this morning I could only find the smaller one. When I go home today there still was only one clown so I investigated more. It turns out that it was dead in my skimmer. I'm having a hard time believing that it jumper over and into my internal weir an then got sucked down to the sump and into the skimmer. It didn't look beat up but I guess it could have got sucked into the power head but I'm just guessing.
I have now put gutter screening over the internal weir so a fish can't end up in the sump.
Okay, so my question is can I get another clown since the one that is in the tank is a juvenile? My LFS told me that I could only get another one that is smaller than the one in the tank. I'm having a hard time believing it because the one in the tank is so small and still juvenile. He told me that I could wait until this one got a little bigger and then get a smaller one. Does this sound right? Thanks

 

[hotelbravo]

I would get a smaller one. But you said your tank just finished cycling, How long did you cycle it for and what method did you use?
Just out of curiousity.

 

[Ironwood]

I would get a smaller one. But you said your tank just finished cycling, How long did you cycle it for and what method did you use?
Just out of curiousity.

First I cured my rock in a trash barrel until the ammonia level went down to 0 which took 4 weeks. I then put the rock and live sand in my display tank and cycled that for four weeks. I put a raw shrimp in the tank to help the cycle and also used Dr Tims. The DT seemed to be cycled within two weeks but I still waited until 4+ weeks.

 

[Ironwood]

From everything I have read the time to get them is when they are juveniles/unsexed. I would think that it wouldn't matter if the new clown is bigger or smaller because the small clown has only been in the tank for a couple of days and is very small/unsexed. Am I wrong?

 

[hotelbravo]

Ive personally seen a breeding pair of snowflakes that the male was less than an inch long. so in my opinion the size does not mean immaturity and just because its small does not mean the fish has not picked a gender. i would stick with getting a smaller fish from a lfs. if yours is really really small and it would be hard to get another one smaller than it i would just wait a month or so. otherwise you would be gambling with a new fishes life by hoping yours hasnt decided to turn female and then them both to be incompatible.

 

[Ironwood]

Ive personally seen a breeding pair of snowflakes that the male was less than an inch long. so in my opinion the size does not mean immaturity and just because its small does not mean the fish has not picked a gender. i would stick with getting a smaller fish from a lfs. if yours is really really small and it would be hard to get another one smaller than it i would just wait a month or so. otherwise you would be gambling with a new fishes life by hoping yours hasnt decided to turn female and then them both to be incompatible.

Will do, Thanks