Adding another clown or something else...?

[mjleffler]

Hi everyone,

I started off my first tank with two juvenile ocellaris clownfish back in the beginning of April. Unfortunately, around mid June I had the larger of the two jump from the tank while I had the lid off acclimating multiple bags of coral and wasn’t paying enough attention. I would really like to get another clownfish to pair up with the one I have but I’m worried about aggression and don’t want to put the new fish in danger. I’ve read that you should be okay if the new clown is smaller, but when I asked someone at my LFS they were very against it. Wondering if anyone out there has had any luck with this or if it’s a bad idea.

If it’s not a good idea, I would also be interested in hearing if anyone has any other fish suggestions! I have a 20g peninsula tank currently stocked with a few soft coral, LPS, snails, hermit crabs, a Pom Pom crab, and 3 sexy shrimp. I really like the look of possum wrasses but haven’t had any luck at my LFS or online.

Thank you!

 

[Spare time]

I think you are fine with a smaller clown. For another fish, I really like blennies.

 

[Nigel35]

Adding another clown is totally fine. There should not be any aggression if they are juveniles. Once the clowns have "selected" a gender then there could be some aggression.

 

[mjleffler]

Would the clowns have selected a gender in the short time I had the pair together? I really haven’t noticed any huge changes since I’ve gotten them minus it getting slightly larger

 

[Nigel35]

The larger clowns are generally the females. If the 2 clowns that you originally had were definitely paired they probably did select a gender. It is kinda a hit or miss, you may get lucky and end up with a male clown or female clown to pair up with the existing clown. As a rule of thumb I would say that if there is aggression than the clowns are of the same gender, resulting in the aggression.

 

[mjleffler]

Hmmm.... so if they did end up pairing/choosing genders in the short amount of time I had them together, and the one I have now is a male (since it was the smaller of the two), I’m wondering if getting a smaller juvenile would still be okay, and that juvenile becomes the female?

 

[Nigel35]

That should work fine. FYI if there is aggression it would be smart to remove the aggressive clown. Possibly even start over and get 2 new clowns.

 

[Super Fly]

adding smaller clown should be fine, I've done this few times w/o issue. Besides, since the existing one is juvenile and it's only been in tank since April it may be lonely and love the company.

 

[mjleffler]

adding smaller clown should be fine, I've done this few times w/o issue. Besides, since the existing one is juvenile and it's only been in tank since April it may be lonely and love the company.

That’s what I’m hoping for!