The prequel: Let me start by saying that one of the driving forces behind my obsession with a saltwater tank is the wonderment of a pair of clown fish wallowing in an anemone.
The story: I have recently got back into the hobby after being away for 15 years. While making the decision to dive back in, I observed a group of locally bred, juvenile clownfish that were absolutely beautiful at my lfs. I believed them to be Occelaris, however they had a little larger black border and were more of a vibrant orange than the average wild caught version. They seem to be almost a cross of an Occelaris and a True Percula. They were tiny and beautiful!
When I saw them, it cemented my decision to get back in. I also decided, after conferring with the shop owner, to use a pair of the beautiful clowns to cycle the new tank. The tank sped through the cycle using live rock and live sand. The clowns came out unscathed and very healthy. One of them is a little more tiny than the first, we will call him Sammy. The stripe around the base of Sammy's tail does not quite connect, which endears him to me. The very slightly larger of the two, Sandy, is the dominant one (of course). They have been happy in the tank but as Clowns will do, they have taken the corners of the tank as their host. So they swam there vertically most of the day and night, until feeding time.
Fast forward to two days ago. A friend is renovating his tank and wanted to give me 3 anemones, an Occelaris clown (his name is Max) and some other small coral pieces. I new that a third clown was not ideal but considering that the ones I had were only using about 1/10th of a 100+ gallon tank, I thought it might work out.
When Max went into my tank with his anemones he immediately swam down to check on his favorite nem. He hung there for a while and then saw Sammy and Sandy swimming in the corner and he went over to greet them. The three of them hung out in the corner for the rest of the evening to my very boisterous dismay.
The next day Max decided he had enough of being without his nem and he abandoned the other two clowns to get back to his home. Sammy and Sandy were curious and checked out the anemone but were not quite ready to a abandon their comfy corner.
Today Sammy and Sandy both decided that the anemone just looked too inviting. They jumped in and all three were wallowing around like pigs in poo! I feared that they were going to hurt the poor anemone as they were enjoying themselves so much! It was a beautiful sight!! However after a short time, Sammy was pressured out of the nem. My favorite fish wandered back up to his now lonely corner and my heart broke for him while Sandy and Max were still partying like rock stars.
My dilemma: Now I want the best of both worlds. I love the fact that I have what appears to be a pair of clowns in an anemone but my beautiful pair has been split up. Max seems like a nice fish but I'm not sure he is right for Sandy.
I am thinking that I may isolate max in and see if Sandy will allow Sammy to join her back in the anemone. I don't really want to play match maker and risk all of the clowns abandoning the anemone but I feel like it may be worth the gamble...
If anyone has made it through this rambling love story please give me your thoughts of how I should proceed.
The story: I have recently got back into the hobby after being away for 15 years. While making the decision to dive back in, I observed a group of locally bred, juvenile clownfish that were absolutely beautiful at my lfs. I believed them to be Occelaris, however they had a little larger black border and were more of a vibrant orange than the average wild caught version. They seem to be almost a cross of an Occelaris and a True Percula. They were tiny and beautiful!
When I saw them, it cemented my decision to get back in. I also decided, after conferring with the shop owner, to use a pair of the beautiful clowns to cycle the new tank. The tank sped through the cycle using live rock and live sand. The clowns came out unscathed and very healthy. One of them is a little more tiny than the first, we will call him Sammy. The stripe around the base of Sammy's tail does not quite connect, which endears him to me. The very slightly larger of the two, Sandy, is the dominant one (of course). They have been happy in the tank but as Clowns will do, they have taken the corners of the tank as their host. So they swam there vertically most of the day and night, until feeding time.
Fast forward to two days ago. A friend is renovating his tank and wanted to give me 3 anemones, an Occelaris clown (his name is Max) and some other small coral pieces. I new that a third clown was not ideal but considering that the ones I had were only using about 1/10th of a 100+ gallon tank, I thought it might work out.
When Max went into my tank with his anemones he immediately swam down to check on his favorite nem. He hung there for a while and then saw Sammy and Sandy swimming in the corner and he went over to greet them. The three of them hung out in the corner for the rest of the evening to my very boisterous dismay.
The next day Max decided he had enough of being without his nem and he abandoned the other two clowns to get back to his home. Sammy and Sandy were curious and checked out the anemone but were not quite ready to a abandon their comfy corner.
Today Sammy and Sandy both decided that the anemone just looked too inviting. They jumped in and all three were wallowing around like pigs in poo! I feared that they were going to hurt the poor anemone as they were enjoying themselves so much! It was a beautiful sight!! However after a short time, Sammy was pressured out of the nem. My favorite fish wandered back up to his now lonely corner and my heart broke for him while Sandy and Max were still partying like rock stars.
My dilemma: Now I want the best of both worlds. I love the fact that I have what appears to be a pair of clowns in an anemone but my beautiful pair has been split up. Max seems like a nice fish but I'm not sure he is right for Sandy.
I am thinking that I may isolate max in and see if Sandy will allow Sammy to join her back in the anemone. I don't really want to play match maker and risk all of the clowns abandoning the anemone but I feel like it may be worth the gamble...
If anyone has made it through this rambling love story please give me your thoughts of how I should proceed.
