Last Friday one of my Clownfish jumped out of the tank and was dead before I noticed. I feel stupid and guilty because a couple days before while feeding it jumped out of the water like a dolphin. It wasn't in the best health since I got it, but I got it with another at the same time and the other one (which had similar damage) is almost fully healed. The jumper was the worst in terms of damage but was starting to heal and get color back, the others were starting to pick on it the last couple weeks but nothing too crazy I didn't see any significant damage other than small fin frays. I debated putting it in an isolation box but at this point its a bunch of shoulda, woulda, coulda.
Anyways I'm now in the process of building a hood for the tank and have a makeshift cover to prevent any more jumpers. What I'm worried about is from the research I've done, I think its better to keep them in pairs, since when a pair establishes they will likely bully the odd one out. My tank is a 125 gal and I know I'm already taking a risk trying 2 pairs. I currently have 2 naked ocellaris and 1 piscasso percula they are all still juvenile. Although it seems like the bigger ocellaris and the 1 percula who is left are starting to hang together the little ocellaris still hangs around them but not always, and they seem to all sleep together in a corner. Just wondering what I should do? Should I just keep my eye on it and if a pair forms and starts bullying one just call it a loss and give 1 back to a LFS? Or throw in another percula and hope they pair and separate to another side of the tank? I don't really want to give any back to my LFS, they seem alright but I've seen dying fish there. I know some of that is unavoidable with the stress from shipping but they also just throw all their clownfish in a tank smaller than what I've seen at Petco, unless its some special order. I will give it to someone though if there's just no chance for it in my tank i have an isolation box just in case. So have I just doomed these clowfish or is there something I can do? Thanks in advance for any advice.
Anyways I'm now in the process of building a hood for the tank and have a makeshift cover to prevent any more jumpers. What I'm worried about is from the research I've done, I think its better to keep them in pairs, since when a pair establishes they will likely bully the odd one out. My tank is a 125 gal and I know I'm already taking a risk trying 2 pairs. I currently have 2 naked ocellaris and 1 piscasso percula they are all still juvenile. Although it seems like the bigger ocellaris and the 1 percula who is left are starting to hang together the little ocellaris still hangs around them but not always, and they seem to all sleep together in a corner. Just wondering what I should do? Should I just keep my eye on it and if a pair forms and starts bullying one just call it a loss and give 1 back to a LFS? Or throw in another percula and hope they pair and separate to another side of the tank? I don't really want to give any back to my LFS, they seem alright but I've seen dying fish there. I know some of that is unavoidable with the stress from shipping but they also just throw all their clownfish in a tank smaller than what I've seen at Petco, unless its some special order. I will give it to someone though if there's just no chance for it in my tank i have an isolation box just in case. So have I just doomed these clowfish or is there something I can do? Thanks in advance for any advice.
