Black & White Clown question ...

[ice4ice]

Hello all !

I have been doing alot of reading & researching stuff on setting up a SW aquarium tank (going on 2 months now) and I pretty much got my fish compatibility down to pat. Although no tank nor equipment has been aquired yet until I completely understand the biology of the marine aquarium and the responsibilties involved. I am confident I will get the hang of it soon.
There is one vexing, burning question that has gotten the best of me and I am hoping anyone can shed light into this.
Recently I have came across the gorgeous black & white clownfish for sale in a couple websites (saltwaterfish.com & *****.com). My question is this : is there any compatibilty issues with the b&w clownfish to add along with the Ocellaris Clownfish ? I asked that question in another forum website elsewhere and their responses were "No." The reason I'm asking, is according to this website it states they will get along with other species of clownfish and I believe they are tank-raised.
Another reason is, I pretty much settled on what livestock I want to add to my tank when I'm ready to get into the hobby. I have planned on acclimating all 3 clowns all the same time. They will be the first fishes into the tank after the corals are settled in after a couple months or so. My future tank will have live rock / Arag-Alive sand and some beginner corals (mushrooms, polyps, xenias, maybe some candy cane corals).
The tank will be a 46 gal. Bowfront with compact orbit lighting.
Livestock list (along with the usual shrimps and algae cleaner paks) :
Ocellaris Clownfish (tank-raised) x 2
Black & White Clownfish (tank-raised or aquacultured) - 1
Coral Beauty Angelfish OR Flame Angelfish (1)
Clown Goby (1)
Jeweled Blenny (1)
Marble Sea Star OR Double Sea Star (1 - pending my decision to add)
Any advice or insight regarding the B&W Clownfish compatibilty or personal experience of them co-existing with other clowns would be appreciated.

 

[bang guy]

B&W Clownfish are actually a color morph of Ocellaris Clownfish. Although they will get along just fine with another Ocellaris, having 3 Ocellaris in the same tank won't normally work unless the tank is very large. Two of them will bond and they will not allow the 3rd into "their" claimed space. If they decide to claim the entire tank then the 3rd Clownfish will be killed because it can't physically get out of their claimed space.
Ocellaris typically claim a radius of about 2 feet all the way around their nest. If the nest is in the center of a 4 foot tank then they will usually claim the entire tank.
This is true for every Clownfish species that I'm familiar with except for Percula. Percula seem to claim a much smaller area.

 

[pbienkiewi]

I have 3 B&W clowns in my 30gal reef. They started off as juvi's and 2 have lost the orange face while the other one still has the orange face. The biggest one (female) does let the smaller one near her.

 

[bang guy]

Good luck with that.

 

[ice4ice]

OK, this pretty much settles my decision with the clownfishes. Now to alter my choices by eliminating the B&W clown. Or ... I can go with 2 B&W Clowns instead !

Thank you for your input, Bang Guy ! I appreciate it.

 

[clintjj]

I had 4 perculas living in a saddleanemone. 3 ocs. will do fine.

 

[ice4ice]

Thank you all for your responses. I'm going to stick with a pair of clowns. Those that have more than 2 clowns in their tanks, I'm assuming have larger tanks (50 gallons & up) to accomodate them. I don't want to spend for 3 if one of them ends up in the big ocean in the sky. Again - thank you all for sharing your experiences and advices. I appreciate it very much.

 

[5.0stang]

OR you could get one of each. I have a regular orange oceallaris and a black and white one and they along great, they swim all over our tank together. we couldnt make up our mind so we got one of each =)

 

[ice4ice]

You can do that ? That is so cool ! Now ya got me thinking ......

 

[riccio]

Like BG said, they're all ocellaris, black or orange, just stick with two.

 

[g13]

One of each would be great. Plus it makes the tank more colorful. I myself prefer the black/white clowns since the orange ones are usually in everyone sw tank. But just to give you another type of clown to think about if you can't decide on black/white or the regular orange clown. Here's a pair of my onyx clowns.

and a pic of my black/white clowns...both pairs are in seperate tanks.

 

[ice4ice]

They are beautiful. I have never seen onyx clowns before. I do agree that everybody usually do have orange clowns in sw tanks. Thank you for the pics, G13. Now I think I will go with a O. Clown and a B&W clown. Or will I go with the onyx ? ...... Aw crap ! Now this makes it even harder ! LOL !!!