can i mix clown species???

[blitz99]

i know 3 clowns is a bad idea, but i want a maroon/gold striped clown and currently have one false perc...
could i add the gold stripe? or would i have to get rid of the false first?

 

[cl0wnfish]

Mixing different species is a bad idea, especially when a maroon is involved. They are the most aggressive of the clown's. Go with percs or maroons, not both. The only species that you can mix is a false perc with a true perc and a "normal" maroon with a gold stripe, but the same rule applies with having a pair only.

 

[blitz99]

ok, well.... i had to false percs... now i am down to one due to an ich outbreak... it's been a few weeks but he looks like crap still.. if i go with new ones, i am going with 2 new ones and trading him in... or will he regain his good looks?
as for maroons, are they aggressive towards other fish too? or just other clowns?

 

[cl0wnfish]

Wait to add new fish until everyone in the tank has been disease free for it least 4 weeks. If your clown is not 100%, the clock has not started yet. If you add fish now, they may get ich that is still living in your tank and you won't break the cycle.
This is why a quarantine/hospital tank is essential. Keeps the ich life cycle out of your display tank and if it does break out, you can remove the fish and the ich parasites will die out in 4 weeks.
Maroons are agressive toward pretty much any fish that comes into it's territory (especially the females). They have even been known to attack keepers arms when they are cleaning the tank! If you have a larger tank (55gal+), you should be alright with other fish as long as they don't look like clowns. Tangs, gobys, blennys, sharks, whales, dolphins, giant squids...etc. :hilarious

 

[cl0wnfish]

Oh yea, your clown will regain his looks in time. Keep feeding him and get him to a hospital/QT tank. He will recover and the ich outbreak will fallow out in 4 weeks so he won't be constantly fighing off new infections.

 

[blitz99]

i wasnt planning to add anytime soon... i know i have a few weeks left until it's safe... i'm just planning ahead, thats all.

 

[cl0wnfish]

Originally Posted by Blitz99
i wasnt planning to add anytime soon... i know i have a few weeks left until it's safe... i'm just planning ahead, thats all.
Smart move. It really pays to plan ahead and get it right the first time.

 

[thejdshow]

I would still consider a QT, even when ich appears to have vanished, it can come back much worse. I think the life cycle is like 30 days for ich. So if you put your fish in a QT and did a hyposalinity, and waited 4 to 6 weeks before adding them back to the tank you could be sure your fish are ich free, and your display tank would be ich free as well (30 days without any fish to live off of will kill them). I would say if you diidn't have any inverts your could do a hypo in your display tank, but I dont know the result it would have on the LR and LS. it may kill it? It is also good to have a QT because then you can watch newly purchased fish for about 3 weeks and make sure they are healthy before you add them to your display tank.
Just some food for thought,
-JD

 

[dmitry]

So wait, about mixing. I posted a thread in the "Fish Discussion" forum about mixing different species and got a universal "Don't do it." I wanted to get a "regular" and a "gold stripe." Would they be ok to mix??

 

[slammy16]

This is prabably not the way to do it but, its what i did. I made my decisioins before reading these forums. My first 2 fish where a Royal Gramma and a False Perc. clown. about 2 weeks later i bought a GS Maroon clown. THis has been about 1 1/2 months ago and they are still fine but, I have purchased a Nano to put my False Perc in. My GSM has taken over my bubble coral so now he is gaurding it from the Percula. Before he went to the bubble coral they were buddies sleeping together and everything, He does not chase the precula around the tank he just wont let him down by the bubble coral. Once i get my new nano going i will move my percula into it. IF you have a choice i would not purposely mix 2 different clown species.
A firend of mine just recently had a bad experience with clowns... He had a fish only tank with a Tomato clown and a false perucla (125gal). He then bought a established reef tank that had a 4" GS Maroon clown... Once he moved the new tank into his house he put all the fish in at one time, the maroon was territorial he didnt like any of the other clowns to close he would only bother them when they came close by. Well my firend thinking that he had a good idea bought 2 anemones.. well the Maroon moved right into one and the other 2 would just swim around everything was fine.... until.... THe tomato decided to move into the other anemone and all hell broke loose... The tomato was about half the size of the maroon and the tomato proceeded to kick the living crap out of the maroon ... needless to say he was able to catch the tomato and gave it to a firend of his... the maroon is healing nicely... He still has the percula in there with the maroon and i dont know what he has planned for that....
Hope this helps..

 

[jacob_poly]

totally agree....dont mix species as far as possible...I made that mistake a couple of times...tried to mix tomato clowns with clarkii....bloodshed ensued....then tried to mix a false perc with the tomatoes and that proved to be a bad idea as well.....didn't want to give the fishes away at first and so kept separate tanks....Finally decided to part with the tomato clowns. My clarkii and perc did well in my 90 G together.....then swapped the larger clarkii with a juvenille....the juv clarkii and my false perc got along...UNTIL I added an anemone....now the false perc has gotten a little agressive towards the smaller clarkii...but its not bad...he chases him sometimes but thats about it...he doesn't bite or anything...but if I could go back in time and change things, I would never have bought different species like I did.....