Since I hear this is pretty rare... (pic)

wheelspin

New member
My clowns... Been living together for about 3 years

Sorry for the terrible pics, I have no idea how to work my wife's new camera...

clowns01.jpg


clowns02.jpg
 
Its actually quite common for people to put 2+ clowns in their tanks.

Has there been any spawning? Your maroon also looks a little beat up.
 
she did not fair well at all in the tank move, I actually thought I was gonna lose her but she is doing much better.
 
When it gets larger, the maroon is probably going to beat up the other two, unless they pair up and tag team the maroon.... anyway, they'll probably need to be separated eventually unless you have a fairly large tank.
 
Not rare at all... when they are juveniles. Probably less rare when they are all tank-raised (as yours are).

Wait until that maroon matures and she'll eat those other clowns for appetizers before she goes for your hand!
 
Not rare at all... when they are juveniles. Probably less rare when they are all tank-raised (as yours are).

Wait until that maroon matures and she'll eat those other clowns for appetizers before she goes for your hand!

they are all close to 6 years old.
 
BonsaiNut
Not rare at all... when they are juveniles. Probably less rare when they are all tank-raised (as yours are).

Wait until that maroon matures and she'll eat those other clowns for appetizers before she goes for your hand!

+1 on the Maroon going for the hand I have a GSM and every time I clean its tanks it attacks me or whatever I use to clean the tank with. Bit me once:lol:
It is all by it's self
 
Not sure if it's angle or what, but maroon looks small compared to others, and sickly and beat up.
The other two look like they are keeping an eye on it, probably not stoked on it.
I knew a girl once that always boasted her maroon getting on w/ others, when I finally saw it, it had a giant lesion on it's lip, probably kept the dang thing from biting anything.
So, so far that's two maroons placed w/ others I've seen work out, I guess, so far...
Thanks for proof in pics.
 
I don't think it's as rare as some on this site will have you believe. Lots of us have more than one pair of clowns in our tanks and have had for several years with no issues. I agree that Maroons can be mean, but like any other fish (or people for that matter) they can have different temperaments. some can play nice with others and some will try and take your hand off when you feed it.
 
6 years? Then I guess the maroon is a male then? I could only imagine a huge beastly female at 6 years terrorizing those other 2 clowns, etc.
 
I would say the maroon is at least 1.5 times the size of the orange. In the pics the maroon is actually about 7-8 inches behind the other two. It's just never really been that aggressive, for as long as I can remember it will swim to the top and let my wife pet it with her finger & hand feed it.
 
My GSM's charge my hand and bite it everytime I put my hand in the 44g. In the 75g my Cinnamon Clown will come from the left side of the tank to the right side of the tank at full speed and bite my hand, arm, whatever, just to make sure I know she's there...There's a reason I call her Captain Blackfin....
 
they are all close to 6 years old.

Age has nothing to do with maturity (as I tell my teenage son :) ). Seriously though, clowns in the wild will stay as juveniles indefinitely if the conditions are not right for them to sexually mature.

Trust me - that maroon is a juvenile, and the other two clowns probably are as well. Any two of those clowns pair up, and the third will be harassed to death. That's just the way it is. This forum is loaded with threads about "my clowns got along together for years, and then two started spawning and now they are fighting all the time."

Additionally, you have to understand that captive-raised clowns are raised in very different conditions than what they experience in the wild. They start their lives in very crowded conditions with tons of clowns all around them. They are probably much more "accustomed" to being with other clowns - and other strange clowns - than wild caught clowns are. Once they sexually mature, however, Mother Nature reasserts herself.
 
Age has nothing to do with maturity (as I tell my teenage son :) ). Seriously though, clowns in the wild will stay as juveniles indefinitely if the conditions are not right for them to sexually mature.

Trust me - that maroon is a juvenile, and the other two clowns probably are as well. Any two of those clowns pair up, and the third will be harassed to death. That's just the way it is. This forum is loaded with threads about "my clowns got along together for years, and then two started spawning and now they are fighting all the time."

Additionally, you have to understand that captive-raised clowns are raised in very different conditions than what they experience in the wild. They start their lives in very crowded conditions with tons of clowns all around them. They are probably much more "accustomed" to being with other clowns - and other strange clowns - than wild caught clowns are. Once they sexually mature, however, Mother Nature reasserts herself.

Very true
 
6 years???

+1 For more Pictures...

6 years, while a nice accomplishment, is nothing extraordinary for clowns. Check in with some of the breeders if you want to see clown longevity. I know breeders that have pairs going on 15+ years, spawning like clockwork. And if these brood clowns were wild caught, who knows how old they were when they were first collected...
 
Here's an experiment :) Drop a 4th clown in there of the same type of ANY of the other three. I'd be curious if the two "like" clowns pair up, and put the beat down on the other two.

Let me recommend that your 4th clown is not another maroon :)
 
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Here's an experiment :) Drop a 4th clown in there of the same type of ANY of the other three. I'd be curious if the two "like" clowns pair up, and put the beat down on the other two.

Let me recommend that your 4th clown is not another maroon :)

That could potentially wreck an unusual threesome that the OP enjoys.
 
That could potentially wreck an unusual threesome that the OP enjoys.

Three fish hanging out in a tank and not killing each other doesn't make a "threesome".

This is a threesome.

I don't want to sound harsh or upset anyone, but people post threads like this all the time. "Ten clowns in the same tank". "Five clowns in the same tank". Etc. Everything is great until two clowns develop into a mature pair. Then it's Total War. I hope this guy enjoys his clowns and that his maroon recovers from the damage that he has sustained. I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade, but I would rather have two happy clowns than three unhappy clowns.
 
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Agree w/ Bonsai, more than one pair in a normal size tank(unless from same clutch) is a ticking time bomb like 99.5% of the time.
The only other time I've seen similar "seem" to work out was when illness prevented the clowns from acting normal or naturally.
 
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