Two Clownfish Pair in one tank

[Fishcrazy06]

I am in the midst of doing an upgrade/consolidation of my tanks. Right now I have a mated pair of clowns. This pair is a snowflake and blackice clownfish pair. My second pair is a pair of ORA pink skunk clownfish.

I am setting up a 180 gallon marineland tank right now. I would like to add both pair to this tank. Is this something that is possible or hit or miss depending on the temperament of the clowns?

Thank you in advance

 

[shifty51008]

Most likely you will end up with 1 pair in the end, pick the one pair you want in the new tank and sell the other pair or setup a seperat tank for the other pair.

 

[FTDelta]

It may work or it may end badly in a tank your size. You're taking a huge risk mixing clownfish species. I wouldn't do it.

 

[phender]

In this case, if both pairs are already acclimated to their own anemone, you would have a decent chance of pulling this off.

Both of these species tend to be very attached to their anemones and don't stray far. If this is the case for your two pairs, you have a good chance of keeping them in the same tank. I had two breeding pairs (perc and orange skunk) in the same 55 gal (48") tank for about 5-7 years. They would cross paths during feeding time, but generally ignored each other. Both pairs constantly had eggs, so that wasn't a problem either.

You still need to be very careful. If things turn bad, it can happen very quickly and usually without warning.

 

[bues0022]

Can we make this topic a sticky? It seems to come up several times a week (though most not as likely successful as this case)

 

[OrionN]

I agree with Phil. If you have two anemones that the two pairs are in, just put the anemone and the clowns on opposite side of the tank. This will likely work.
Pink skunk and Ocellaris are the two most docile of all the clown fish. If anything going to work, this will.

 

[bfliflet]

I have two pair of clowns in a 300gallon with 2 giganteas, a haddoni and a bubble tip. The plan was to provide the giganteas on opposite ends of the tanks to keep the pairs apart. The ocellaris pair ironically picked the bubble tip in the middle near the main home of the skunks. They squabble continuously but only minor damage. It's somewhat similar to tangs who fight regularly. I would suggest if you try this to 1) pick similar sized clowns so that the fight is equally balanced, 2)separate the anemones (visibly if possible) and 3) be prepared to either remove one pair if they don't settle down within a week.
Based on my experiences, these docile clowns can get really nasty. One pink skunk constantly antagonizes the (slightly smaller) ocellaris pair. When conditions were reversed, the male of the ocellaris pair would antagonize the larger skunks. Even when they had a home, they would try and take the next. Things are now at a steady state. Ymmv.

 

[chris041177]

I've also recently and so far successfully added a second pair to my 70 Gallon tank. As suggested before, on opposite sides of the tank. I had a mated pair of ocellaris which hang out by one of my BTAs but don't know what to do with it even after a year. I recently added an LTA with 2 clarkiis on the opposite side. The ocellaris don't like the clarkiis and chased them for the first few days but left them alone once they were in the LTA. Now they both keep to their opposite ends and the clarkiis rarely leave the LTA.

 

[bues0022]

This is far too early to start declaring success. With the size tank and species you have, in all likelihood you are on an unsustainable course.