Adding 2nd Clown?

[superwade2]

About a week ago I added 2 O.Clown's from the LFS and I think they were in extreme shock from a new arrival at the LFS and then into my tank on the same day or 2... it's a newly cycled tank (6-7 weeks), and I've had 5 B/G Chromis for a little while which have been doing excellent...
Anyhow to make a long story short, the smaller of the 2 Clowns only lasted 2 days without eating and then became "Crab Food"... the larger one went about 4-5 days eating nothing (after trying about 5-6 different food types) and I was sure he was also going to kick off. But he has started taking food better over the past day or two, and seems MUCH more lively and comes out to 'play' with the Chromis' and such.
Basically I wanted to know if/when I should try to add another O.Clown (probably from a different LFS) to replace the dearly departed 1st one (my first casuality, not counting snails, which also became Crab food).
Thanks,
SW2

 

[kadella]

:joy: Superwade- I have the exact same problem - I got 2 Occ. Clowns last weekend - one only made it 2 days and the larger one is on day 6 now without eating, hopefully he will eat tonight, or he won't be around much longer.. what food did yours finally start eating? He seems very lonely without his mate- when can we get another one? He is solo in a 55 gal aside from snails & crabs.. I would think after yours has been accepting food for at least a week before introducing another clown... Anyone have any advice?

 

[fishy7]

I had the non eating issue. I added 1 drop of garlic (Kent Garlic extreme)on the food and let it set for 1 hour.

Fed it to them, they became interested at this point.
I did this with 3 different types of food and they now pretty much take food with 0 issues.
Try the garlic trick. :thinking:

 

[dmjordan]

Call the LFS and find out if the fish were eating there and what were they feeding it. If your fish is still alive try to feed what they were feeding.
You should make sure all your levels are normal before adding any new fish. I would wait at least a couple of weeks with normal water parameters before adding new fish.
Your new problems will be to find another O. Clown that is smaller than the one you currently have that is in a tank with other O. Clowns that are larger than it is. The reason is that the female clowns are larger than male clowns and if you only have 1 clown in a tank it will more than likely turn female. The second problem is that you probably not be able to QT the new clown for long because it may turn female during the quaritine time.
One thing you can do is when you buy a fish from your LFS have them feed the fish you want before they bag it. Also make sure the fish didn't just come in. Sorry for your loss

 

[saltwater8]

Hello,
I was under the impression that you could not have 2 clowns in the same tank unless they were mated? I thought that they would fight ferociously?

 

[bigpete]

if you already have one clown in the tank, its is possible to add a second clown if it is significantly smaller than the clown in your tank right now. if you are refering to ocelaris, or false percs, they are pretty docile. there shouldnt be any problems, maybe some quarrels in the begining, but should die down. good luck

 

[saltwater8]

Ok, what about adding 2 clowns of the same size to the tank at the same time?
:happyfish

 

[dmjordan]

Originally Posted by Saltwater8
Ok, what about adding 2 clowns of the same size to the tank at the same time?
:happyfish
This depends on if the fish were in the same tank when you purchased them and also which type they are. Certain types of clowns can only be housed singly unless they are bought as a mated pair. But then again if they are a mated pair the female will be larger.
If both fish are same size and from different tanks they might not get along.