Picking Your Clownfish

Travis Stewart

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Mine host at night and normally never during the day.. is this a comfort thing?

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Travis Stewart

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I agree. It's a safety thing for them.

I have had these clowns for three years. They are very active and have hosted many things. They used to hang in my old nem all day, but I lost it during a move. Anything I can do to encourage their day time host again lol.
 

Robbie Gibbins

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I had a pair of oscelaris clowns. One died and now I have a female. Can I add another clown in the same family
 
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melypr1985

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I have had these clowns for three years. They are very active and have hosted many things. They used to hang in my old nem all day, but I lost it during a move. Anything I can do to encourage their day time host again lol.

Not that I can think of. I would just be grateful they are hosting at all. This coming from me, who's clowns refuse to host anything but the upper front corner of the tank. My lightning maroon at the store hosts her nem though! That's the first picture in the article :)
I had a pair of oscelaris clowns. One died and now I have a female. Can I add another clown in the same family
Yes you can. You'll need to be sure you purchase a juvenile or a male. It's difficult to determine that it's a male unless you split up an existing pair, or are able to observe a group of small clowns together and see which are the most subservient.
 

davocean

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I had a pair of oscelaris clowns. One died and now I have a female. Can I add another clown in the same family
It's pretty safe to assume a small clown, not just smaller than your female, but about the smallest you will see an LFS carry, usually up to about an inch and a quarter and no bigger will be sexless or male.
To be safe, we normally advise introduction in a floating breeder or specimen container, sometimes for a couple/few days, placed near the females spot, and observe her, is she curious, or are her cheek spines out and she charges at it like she wants to kill it.
This is the safest route.

This is what I do, and this was my fussiest clown to pair, she just would not accept the first 2 males and they were teeny tiny guys, luckily 3rd time was a charm, maroons are known for being a little fussy when it comes to pairing.
But w/ this one instead of charging, she just sat there observing curiously, it was an obvious difference.
 
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Eva Rose

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Loved this article!!! So well written and a great resource before adding one of the most popular fish in the hobby!
 

Travis Stewart

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Weekly water changes?

I did for a long time but haven't lately lol...I have been dosing so it's been pretty stable but I'm all for the weekly water change. Most important thing in that is temp and salinity to be exact it's coming as what the tank is current
 

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I did for a long time but haven't lately non lol...I have been dosing so it's been pretty stable but I'm all for the weekly water change. Most important thing in that is temp and salinity to be exact it's coming as what the tank is current

Thanks Elfda...I would love to have used a real Nem, but the bio load for this tank presents a constant challenge to keep the nitrates respectable, and would be way to stressful for the Nem with all of those guys in there.
 

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They are beautiful!
image.jpeg

Thank you, I saw this post after I broke many of the guidelines. When I bought the long tentacle rusty anemone it was about 3" in diameter. To my delight it split about a month later. Within six months I had a grouping of 8 or 10. I was at everyone's favorite fish store, Petco. They had two beautiful Picasso clowns that were each hosting pitiful little anemones, so I thought they would be perfect for my growing anemone herd. Of course I was wrong they never even attempted to host with my anemone swarm. They would eat the food right next to them as I fed the anemones but were careful no to touch the tentacles. I was afraid to try a different type of clown fearing that the Picasso's would attack the new clown. I've seen percula's beat the hell out of a maroon that was much bigger than they were. I tried making them watch videos of clowns hosting on my iPad, I moved anemones directly into thier "spot" nothing worked. My anemone cluster had grown to more than twenty and was dominating a third of my 120. I desperately wanted a clown in there, so when I spotted two Clarkii's each hosting their own anemone in a small display tank at my lfs. I decided to take the risk and bought one just to see. as you can see it worked out. I went back later last night an bought the other Clarkii, the Picasso's don't seem to care at all. Everyone's eating and no one is fighting so far. I'm thrilled to finally have some nice clowns to go along with my anemones.
 
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melypr1985

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Thank you, I saw this post after I broke many of the guidelines. When I bought the long tentacle rusty anemone it was about 3" in diameter. To my delight it split about a month later. Within six months I had a grouping of 8 or 10. I was at everyone's favorite fish store, Petco. They had two beautiful Picasso clowns that were each hosting pitiful little anemones, so I thought they would be perfect for my growing anemone herd. Of course I was wrong they never even attempted to host with my anemone swarm. They would eat the food right next to them as I fed the anemones but were careful no to touch the tentacles. I was afraid to try a different type of clown fearing that the Picasso's would attack the new clown. I've seen percula's beat the hell out of a maroon that was much bigger than they were. I tried making them watch videos of clowns hosting on my iPad, I moved anemones directly into thier "spot" nothing worked. My anemone cluster had grown to more than twenty and was dominating a third of my 120. I desperately wanted a clown in there, so when I spotted two Clarkii's each hosting their own anemone in a small display tank at my lfs. I decided to take the risk and bought one just to see. as you can see it worked out. I went back later last night an bought the other Clarkii, the Picasso's don't seem to care at all. Everyone's eating and no one is fighting so far. I'm thrilled to finally have some nice clowns to go along with my anemones.

I sincerely hope it keeps working out for you. The arrival of sexual maturity will be the biggest challenge... well, and time of course. Best of luck with it. :D
 
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