Percula or Ocellaris coloring

[Wynnfl]

Newb here.

I just setup a 29 gallon biocube for my kids (wife promised one if our daughter stopped sucking her thumb). I have been wanting to setup a FOWLR tank for quite some time after having a lot of freshwater before we got married, but my wife has never been sold before (now she is already talking about a bigger tank, go figure). The tank has been going for just about 4 weeks now, I saw the expected ammonia spike, followed by a nitrite spike, and then a nitrate spike. I currently have some diatom that I hoping clears up within the next week or so.

Anyhow, the kids of course want nemo fish which is cool with me because I love them too. So, two questions:

1) My daughter wants a regular orange Ocellaris, but my son wants a black one. Can I mix two juveniles, one orange, one black and have them pair (or at least get along)?

2) Looking at some juvenile orange ones, they look very brown in color. Is this normal, will they brighten up with the right nutrition and age, or is that indicative of their final coloring?

 

[ILLiDaN]

1) yes you can mix them, easiest way to do it is picking to small juveniles and have them sort out their sex. Make sure you don't pick to females. How do you know the difference you may ask? google is a great place to start as it has been asked many a times.

2) juvenile occelaris coloration has alot to do with lighting, food, and genetics. If you can look at the parents that should give ou a rough idea of what they look like. Personally i like the really yellow or really orange ones with dark fins.


I say go with the B&W's nicer and not as common, not the typical newbie fish

 

[Wynnfl]

Cool, good to know. I like the B&W's too, they are a bit more unique.

More out of curiosity, would you be able to get 4 juveniles (2 B&W, 2 orange) and have a peaceful community? Would one become the female, one the male, and the other two remain immature?

 

[ILLiDaN]

What size tank? It really depends i would get them from the same breeder and same age if you decided to go that route. Its situational tbh i wouldn't recommend it to someone new to the hobby let alone clownish. I say just stick with the original plan of one pair