Three Perc's ?

[villious]

I have a 120 gallon mixed reef that has one True Perc. I have a pair of Semi-Picasso's on the way. Can I have all three in the tank, or should I give the current Perc away?

Thank you,
Woody

 

[elegance coral]

I would not mix them. The picasso's will PROBABLY be in poor health when you get them. They will need a stable, stress free environment to put on weight and recover. Maybe you could place them in a QT tank for a while so you can get them healthy, then try introducing them to the tank? I doubt you will end up with a pair of Picasso's. You will probably end up with a Perc/Picasso pair and a Picasso that hangs out on the opposite end of the tank.

 

[villious]

Thanks for the advice Elegance Coral. I'm not going to mix them. I'm just going to find a good home for the perc I currently have.

 

[myreefcentral]

i have a pair of ORA picasso and a ******** picasso all in a 20 gallon...the 3rd fish is smaller than the pair so there's no fighting...it knows it's place in the hierarchy...all 3 even sleep at night together on occasion. i also have no nem...don't know if that plays a role in this or not...

question for you, how long have you had the perc by itself? if it's long enough for it to turn into a female then this might not work since you'll be having two females in the same tank. your situation is a little different than mine...

 

[Slakker]

And your situation has been quite short term. For now, your tank is the exception to the rule and IMO a ticking time bomb.

A singular pair is best, it would be easiest on your fish if you set up another tank for your percula or relocated it as you have planned.

 

[myreefcentral]

until the bomb goes off (hopefully it never does) i'm going to try and ride this out as long as i can...it's actually nice watching more than two clowns swim around in the same tank...

 

[Racing1]

It won't take long before they start fighting. I had 3 perc's in my 75 and it took about a month before 2 paired up and started beating on the third. I ended up moving 1 to my wife's 20 long/frag tank.

 

[myreefcentral]

mine's been going on for about 3+ months now...the ORA pair has been paired up since november 2007 according to LFS i got'em from...the other dude is roughly 6 months old...i might be an rare case but just want to give hope to everyone else out there that might want to try but is hesitant to because of the norm...

 

[Toddrtrex]

3 months is not long at all. If ( and I highly doubt it will ) this is still working out in two years, then that will be something. Considering clowns can live up to 20 years, it hasn't been long enough to see if you are a rare case.

Back when I didn't know better I had 3 Clarkiis together for a couple of months, once they reached sexual maturity, it was WWIII, and I ended up with just 2 clowns.

 

[villious]

Sounds to me like the point being made here is "sexual maturity". Not if it will happen, but when.....

 

[ILLiDaN]

i would like to think that all hell would break loose as soon as a pair decides to want to spawn.

 

[davocean]

Yes, it's about when, not if.
And the bummer is it can happen overnight w/out warning.
You could end up w/ a dead clown b4 you know it, maybe more than one dead, and badly scarred survivors.
Trust me, learned the hard way myself years ago.

 

[Arati]

Im with daveocean one day you come home from work and the 3rd wheel is dead.

 

[villious]

Thanks all, but I gave the third clown to a friend. He's doing well