Can you keep more than one pair of clown fish in the same tank?

[Mrs Fish]

Just out of interest .. does anyone keep two pairs?

 

[Moe_K]

If the tank is really big, I think you could.

 

[Chris L]

it all depends on what clowns you want. tomatoes, i would not keep anything else.
percs or osc and pink skunks yes if tank is big enough.
saddles -no
so on and so on.

 

[JohnK]

Generally no.

I have seen a 180G with a pair of maroons and a pair of percs (along with a whole bunch of bta's), but as I understand it, this is the exception to the rule. It's very risky to try, but apparently possible. I wouldn't suggest trying it, much more likely to end up with some very beat up or dead clowns IMO.

Maybe someone else has more info?

Edit; Oh yea, I think pinkskunk had pinkskunks and some other clowns, but I think that was a 5 or 6 foot tank.

 

[Mrs Fish]

Not intending on trying .. just interested? Hadn't seen anyone post about their 2 pairs of clowns ...

 

[dz6t]

Tried that and failed. It was not a good sight. One stuck on filter dead and one dried on carpet.

 

[Ray]

I have had 2 pairs of clowns in my 120 for around a year and a half, 2 pink skunks that host in a RBTA and 2 saddleback clowns that host in a carpet. They were all added 1 at a time and not as pairs, female skunk first, then female saddle, then paired the skunks, this took a few tries because the newly added skunks kept going over to the carpet and the female saddle wasnt having that but once I got a skunk to go to the rose the saddle paired up first shot.

 

[mloebl]

Tried a pair of percs into my 75g which had a pair of pink skunk clowns. First few hours everything was fine except for some chasing by the skunk clowns. Next day came down and they were *torn* to pieces and it was the sadest thing I had seen in awhile. They didn't make it. I believe the general thought is unless you have a really large tank, it's probably not going to work.

-Mike

 

[deadhermitwalkin]

Imo

Imo......

 

[~Flighty~]

In the wild they generally defend about a 5-10 ft radius. Depending on the size of the anemone this can be a pair or a family group for extremely large anemones. In a tank it is really hard to get it to work out. They will have plenty of food and no predators to spend time defending the anemone (or whatever their territory is) from and generally can only be kept in mated pairs. Of course there are exceptions, but you can't count on it. When food is scarce and predators are common they are more likely to form family groups to help them survive or to ignore the neighbors because they don't have the time or strength to deal with them.

 

[Rob]

yup

I have 6 percs in a 180. no issues. actually they all hang together.

(1 is a black/white)

 

[~Flighty~]

I have 6 percs in a 180. no issues. actually they all hang together.

(1 is a black/white)

How long have they been together?

 

[Rob]

going on 2 years.......or so. The last one I added took about a month to be allowed in the "club"