Keeping multiple clowns together...

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orchidsnfish

I know this is a rookie post but I dont care...I am a rookie

Anyway, I bought a 92 bowfront and have put my little CB clowns we raised in there. I would really like to add some naked clowns and some black and white false percs.

What do you guys think. I have a beautiful all clowns/nem tank pictured in my mind but we all know that gets you in trouble quickly.

If all the clowns were false percs, small, CB, and similar size and if they were added at the same time could this work out? 92 gallons isn't a small tank, but I know how aggressive clowns can be although these aren't nearly as aggressive as other types of clowns.

If the tank was full on anemones would they still fight?

What do you guys think?
 
Yeah I read that and it seems that everything I plan as far as CB, size, etc is right to have the best shot at them getting along. I guess I can give it a try and if it doesnt work out then I can always remove some of them.
 
Angela, Ideally, clowns will form "family" units with a pecking order. One example is 8 clowns from my very first hatch. As they grew older, I had them in a tank of their own, and they began developing into a family group. Had I left these alone, the most dominant clown becomes the female, a dominant male then develops with possibly one or two also developing but not dominant, the remaining will maintain an adolescent status and be incapable of reproduction. The adolescents are "clowns in waiting." If the female should die or the dominant male, they are replaced according to the established pecking order.

I threw a monkey wrench into the works by finding a uniquely marked male that was part of a pair. I finally convinced the LFS to sell him to me, and I introduced him into this mix. He was now the dominant clown, and therefore, turned female. The next 3 in the pecking order turned male with one being dominant. The remaining 4 were the adolescents. Kept them together like this for 6 - 8 weeks. The lowest adolescent in the pecking order did die because, I believe, from stress. It's interesting to see the males grow to about 2/3 the size of the female, and the adolescent clowns to about 1/2 her size, yet the original group were all hatched on the same day.

Botton line? It's a crap shoot. In the wild, if the clowns decide to jump on the lowest clown in the group, at least it can leave. There's plenty of ocean out there. In the tank environment, who knows what will happen. The dominant female and male may decide that they want the entire tank to themselves, then all heck can break out. Guess the best way to attempt this is to start out with all adolescents, let nature take her course, and be ready to separate if necessary.

GOOD LUCK.
 
Guess they're strange if you consider a black male and orange female strange. Right now I have 30 that were hatched 8/2. 68 hatched 10/8, and between 30 - 40 hatched 12/13.
 
Cuties! It will be interesting to see how they turn out. Wonder how many will turn black. Cool to have a black and orange pair. I want some black/naked babies. I doubt it will happen though as clowns dont ever seem to want to do what you want them too. My LFS is on the waiting list with ORA to get me a pair of picassos. Will probably be after the new year though.
 
SWEETTT picture!!!, tradosz do you have a dedicated setup for breeding or those fry you pulled from a display tank? that looks awesome! when i breed bettas and cichlids you could house them together and they be fine, but from my experience once i seperated them and try to reintroduce them they get aggressive and kill eachother, guess when they were together they developed the pecking order but as they were seperated into other tanks they were dominant in that tank.
 
Angela, The black does not start developing (changing colors) 'til about 6 - 9 months. Of the 7 that were in my first hatch, it looked like 4 were starting to turn black, I kept one and sold 3 others . Should know in a few months if I was right.
I do have a naked male and a black female that have started laying. Made one attempt at hatching a clutch without success. Will probably try again later. There's no guarantee that they would develop naked blacks. Heck, they could all have stripes. Can only hope they do.

Goby_Nam, the first hatch of 7 were harvested from the parent tank. I've since have them laying eggs in a flower pot in the parent tank, which I then put in a small larval tank on the night of the hatch. The hatches are usually like clock work; they will hatch after the same number of nights each and every time. My original pair's eggs would hatch on the 6th night. They now have since moved ahead one night to the 7th night. Right now I have two 2.5gl larval tanks and and two 10gl grow out tanks. When the kiddo left for A&M Galveston, I took over his room. Would like to expand a little, but have to be careful to do it slowly so the Wife doesn't get too upset. So far I have hatches that have been about 6 weeks apart. Have about 30 - 40 that hatched on the 13th, and there's a clutch in the pot that should hatch next week Wednesday. Will see what they eggs look like next week and try to hatch them. These will be close enough to the 12/13 group that I could eventually combine the fry after metamorphosis (7 - 10 days).
 
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