New Clowns

[Apercula]

Ive had a single percula in my reef for almost 2 years, she has grown to a good size and Ive been wanting to get her a mate for awhile, so I finally started trying to find a good mate for her.

Old clown, picture was focused on the anemone and she just swam in front, so shes a bit out of focus.

I am partial to perculas that have a good amount of black, but balanced with the orange, not to extreme either way. I began by asking my LFS if they could get in a trio of wild caught perculas from either Solomon Islands or Papua New Guinea, because I like the color patterns from those areas. The LFS supplier doesnt order from those areas so I looked online. Live Aquaria had medium perculas from PNG so I ordered some. The plan was to get 3, pair one up with my current clown and have another pair, or at least have a backup if I lost one. Somehow when I was ordering I misentered the number and ordered 5.

I have the 5 new clowns in a quarantine tank, and divided into 2 pairs and a single because there was some aggression between larger individuals when all 5 were together.

Pair number 1,

Larger individual from pair1

Smaller from pair1 has minor fin nippage from the first day when all 5 were together, Ive seen no aggression between these two once they were separated off.

Single clown planned to be paired to my existing female in my reeftank.

Pair2

The plan at this point is to set up the 2 pairs in species tanks to try to breed them, and put the single in with female in the reef, if I can capture any young from the pair in the reef that will just be a bonus.

 

[amore169]

Very nice!!

 

[Apercula]

After 4 weeks in quarantine I put the female from my reef into qt with the new juvenile I wanted to pair with her. There was zero aggression between them, probably because of the large size difference. After a week together to get to know each other I put them into my reef tank.

The other 4 have also been divided into pairs with mixed success. The pair labled pair2 in my first post have gotten along fabulously. The pair labled pair1 has had some jockeying for dominance resulting in minor fin damage (mostly bitemarks without tearing), the aggression has been decreasing over the last week or so, so I expect the smaller of the two is accepting its subordinate position finally. The redspot on the chin of the one fish from pair2 in my first post healed up within a couple days, it must have rubbed it raw in the bag.

 

[patriots81]

very nice. are you putting all 5 into the same tank?

 

[Rrrf_Grrl]

Those are some good looking clowns! I agree, I also like them with a balance of black and orange. Curious to know your plans as well for all 5.

 

[Apercula]

Large female and her new friend will be in the 75g reef, pair#1 (first post first pair) are in a 55g fowlr that will hopefully be a breeding tank, pair#2 are currently in a 29g tank with plans to get a larger tank for them to breed in. So long term Im hoping for 2 dedicated breeding pairs and a third pair in my reef that I may be able to get some fry off of if I can time the hatches. I expect the 2 smaller pairs to take a year or so of grow out time before they are ready to spawn, the pair in the reef is less sure because the female is so large already.