“Premium Aquacultured Clownfish” as in Snowflake Clownfish with Ocellaris Clownfish.

[Garryzoanthid]

Hello everybody,

I have a 40 gallon breeder saltwater tank that has been running for a couple of months since I have had about 6 months of experience but I was curious about adding a Snowflake Clownfish inside of the tank with a pair of a black ocellaris and a separate Orange Ocellaris Clownfish. Meanwhile there is an odd Clownfish smaller than the pair.
I decided to buy the “Premium Aquacultured Clownfish” which Petco’s tag for the clownfish wasn’t specific enough. I did look at his texture and it looked like a snowflake clownfish.
Took it home and acclimated him. He was about 1.3 inches big and looked healthy. As soon as I added him inside the tank, I ended up seeing the pair chase him so I decided to keep him covered by himself with a net so he wouldn’t get chased. During the day I found his fins nibbled on and ended up passing away sadly.
So I’m asking if anybody who owns snowflake clownfish or knows about them to please let me know if it would be best to add a snowflake clownfish as a bigger size or are they not capable of being paired up with.
(He was the exact size as the small Ocellaris clownfish in the image shown.)

 

[blaxsun]

It's rare for a pair of bonded clownfish to cohabitate with other clownfish. Usually one pair will dominate and kill the others off. Sometimes you'll get lucky with a bunch of clownfish that do get along, but it's the exception rather than the rule.

 

[biecacka]

Good luck with 3 clownfish. As @blaxsun stated, a mated pair will almost always kill off any other clownfish. Best would be to try and catch him and take him back. He most likely doesn’t stand a chance. It’s not worth the risk to the fish.


corey

 

[Garryzoanthid]

Good luck with 3 clownfish. As @blaxsun stated, a mated pair will almost always kill off any other clownfish. Best would be to try and catch him and take him back. He most likely doesn’t stand a chance. It’s not worth the risk to the fish.


corey

I’ve had the 3 clownfish for a couple of months and they haven’t budged the third one, the pair haven’t budged a single chase against the third one but I’ll make sure to keep an eye on them later on if something odd happens. Thanks for letting me know though!

 

[jda]

Even if they don't kill the other clownfish, they will not likely be friends or anything. I have pairs and stray/single clowns in my larger tank and they don't harm each other but they do not hang out. I think that tank size, places to hide and amount of food helps with this.

As with clownfish names, unless a clown came with the lineage, then it is just a clownfish. I would hesitate to call a fish a snowflake unless you know that it came from that broodstock... even if it looks similar. All of the fancy oscillaris act the same for me and it does not matter what they look like.