Finally, it was time to add the fish to the DT. My rock had been cycling in rubbermaid containers, with Dr. Tim's and some Microbacter 7 having been added over the course of several months. I didn't particularly aquascape, rather just added rock into two islands for the moment. At this point, the tank was full and running through the sump and back to the DT. I left most of the equipment in the DT for ease of access however.
I had 2 sets of CB ORA clowns that were both going in here. During recovery from surgery, I'm staying with a family member, so I won't be home. While my Apex allows me to do a lot remotely, including some AWC with a DOS, I didn't have enough equipment to run automation on two tanks. I know housing two sets of clowns together can be tricky, so I was prepared to separate them if needed.
Initially, they did fine together. The two larger "females" actually swam together most of the time with little, if any, aggression. The smaller of the snowflakes started swimming by himself, and occasionally, I would see a little chasing by the other three.
Eventually, however, there was some minor signs of aggression between the two larger "females." Given that I was going to be gone for a few weeks, I opted to go ahead and divide up the tank in half using egg crate and screen netting (the fish were able to fit through just the egg crate). This way water flow wouldn't be impeded, food could flow through, and while the fish could see each other, they couldn't harm each other. It also allowed me to have everyone in one single automated tank rather than two, all of which was easier for my tank sitter as well.
When I left, each pair was doing quite well in their own 60g cube.
