six clownfishes in a 125 gal

[beuchat]

Hi, I am planning to have three anemones in a 125 gal tank. Nowadays I have a H. crispa with one a. peridation and another a. peridarion in an elegance coral.

I wonder whenever possible to add a heteractis magnífica with two perculas and one stychodactila gigantea with two black ocellaris. There wold be six clownfishes in the tank (Is this a problem?)

I am thinking in establishing the pairs before in a qt tank, but maybe is better to introduce them at the same time.

Can anemones of the same or different species touch each other?

Thanks!

 

[2Addicted]

I cant see this set up ever working. It would be difficult to keep two different pairs of clowns in a tank, three is pretty much setting up for failure imo. More than likely what would happen with your set up would be the dominant pair would kill off the other pairs.

 

[dirk_brijs]

I have 11 clownfish in my 150gallon tank with 2 established pairs and never had any issues in my main tank.
They are all the same sort though. false perculas.

 

[2Addicted]

Sorry I should have clarified you have a better chance of success if all the clowns are from the same clutch and if there are a lot.

 

[beuchat]

Ok, thanks for the advice!

 

[Toddrtrex]

Besides trying to keep 2 of the more difficult anemones, trying to keep 3 pairs of clowns is most likely not going to work. It might work in the short term, but in time when one of the pairs starts to spawn, all bets are off.

 

[davocean]

Agree, most likely will be left w/ just a pair, and hopefully that, and hopefully not all battle scarred.
Too many people hop up w/ success comments on multiple pairs that short term success.
If they are from same clutch that is a different story, and Moberts tank is a good example of that(sticky at top, 27 clowns) but I recall even then she thought some went missing for reasons unknown.

 

[beuchat]

What about introducing them at the same time with the anemones already in the tank?. I have a Qt tank when I can gruop them for some time

 

[davocean]

Makes no difference, they will still eventually mature/spawn and get aggro, maybe even get aggro right away just for territory.

 

[bues0022]

This comes up from time-to-time, and for 98.5% of people out there, 1 pair is all that should be in a tank.

1% of people have more than one, and this is split amongst two groups: Those that have huge tanks, and understand the risks involved and precautionary measures (multiple "zones" of hosting nems, etc).....and those that tossed in a bunch of clownfish and it "seems" to be working so claim it can work. The former have exit plans if anything should arrise, the later blissfully refute all "experts" claiming it's worked for 6 months, I'm fine. Long-term success is multi-year, not multi-month. The later rarely seem to stick around long enough to tell us how it ended up. (I often wonder if they have a tank crash, or multi-clown death which forces tank shutdown).

The remaining 0.5% are the rare elite who have had success (and understand the myrid combinations of variables) with large numbers of clowns in one tank. While few and far between, this can only be done with expert understanding of the social, dietary, and housing needs of large populations of anemonefishes all housed communally in a single tank.

I urge you to keep to the 98.5 percent, read, research, learn, and eventually you may progress into the knowledgeable 1% or elite 0.5% and end up teaching us all something new!

 

[beuchat]

OK, I see how difficult it is. Maybe in a dedicated system focus in that goal, with great effort and research.

Thank you