One clown or two.. Does it matter?

[crabbydan]

I asked this question in the new to the hobby section and only got 2 or 3 responses so I am hoping this section will give more insight.

What are the pros and cons of having 1 vs 2 clown fish?

Are they happy together more aggressive as they pair easier to host with an anemone?

I have a 105 gallon, 4 ft by 2 ft and 22 inches tall give or take an inch? I have a yellow eye kole 1 inch, an orange spotted goby and pistol shrimp, starry blenny who thinks he owns the place a 1 inc neon blue striped goby.

I have an anemone reddish BTA that has been very happy in the same spot for over 4 months now. I also have lots of shrimp and snails no crabs.

I like the Clarki as I do not see them often since everyone sells owns or wants the "NEMO" looking clown. Also I was told the Clarki will adapt to an anemone quickly.

So whats the pros and cons of getting 1 vs 2 clowns?

 

[ThRoewer]

I would never kept a clownfish by him/herself. In the wild you always find them in pairs, maybe with some immature juveniles (the latter is very hard to replicate in a tank).

As for the clarkii - I like all of them (there are at least 10 color variants/subspecies/species lumped together under that name), plus all the similar looking species from allardi to tricinctus. Especially the juveniles are cute with their little dance they always do. Unfortunately all of them get big - a 40B is the bare minimum tank size for any of them. The other downside is that they are quite territorial and quite selective about the other fish they will allow in their tank.
They also need big anemones (haddoni, mertensi, gigantea, magnifica, crispa, doreensis) or many small ones like you find in BTA clone colonies.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[billnPS]

Yea, I agree--clowns belong in pairs. Then u can watch their crazy antics doing the whole pairing up mating dance.

 

[crabbydan]

Thanks for the input. Do two clowns fair better with more than one anemone?

 

[ThRoewer]

Depends on the anemone and its size.
Certain clowns (melanopus for example) prefer BTA clone colonies.