Our 55G FOWLR

fretfreak13

Active Member
Actually, with clownfish it is the females who are the alphas. They are born sexless, and when one becomes dominant (and larger than the rest) she becomes the female. i was told that you couldn't keep more than two clownfish in the tank because they will pair up and rip the third to shreads. I'm doubting this now, because I see that no one else has commented on this yet and we've had some very knowledgable people write in this thread. o_O
Am I wrong? Three clownfish are safe in one tank?
 

kmoze2001

Member
You are correct, the females are the "alpha" of the group, but my research indicates that when there is more than two, one becomes female, one alpha-male, smaller than the female but larger than the others, and the rest are either beta-males or remain sexless. Our third (Betty, which I haven't managed to get a good shot of yet) is becoming the biggest of the bunch and chases the other two away from her sleeping spot at night leading me to believe she's becoming alpha, though I think that could still change as they're still quite young.
I think Fred and Wilma are still competing for alpha male status, because they are both almost identically sized, and Betty alternates between swimming around with each of them alone, and as a 3-fish school at other times. We can easily tell them apart as they have distinctive differences in their dorsal fin coloration.
It is POSSIBLE that once female and alpha-male are set that they could kill the third, but from what I understand that is not too likely. I'm pretty sure they are siblings and have been together their whole lives, if true that helps. They are aquacultured "teardrop" (meaning the middle stripe isn't complete) clowns.
OTOH, dropping a third into the tank once you have an established pair is highly unlikely to end well.
 

kmoze2001

Member
Ah, nothing like feeding time to create photo ops. Got all three clowns, and both bloods.

As a photographer, not my favorite shot with the skimmer in the background and copepods so sharp, but does show the size difference.

Coralynne

They eat like piranha.

Wilma is on top, Betty is in the middle, Fred is on the bottom.

Also finally managed to get both bloods in a shot. The new one (on the left) is HUGE!
 

kmoze2001

Member
Here's our latest inhabitant, he thinks he a structural engineer. Tough shots to get, he hides in the corner which made placing the strobe difficult, plus the lack of contrast between fish and sand didn't help.
Enjoy!



 

teresaq

Active Member
looks good. I would take the rock you have and make two piles. One on each end with some caves for hiding. .
T
 

kmoze2001

Member
Thanks, yeah going to have to do something re: rocks, as the goby seems determined to dig holes under all of them and we don't want a landslide.
 
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