Please Help with 5 gallon conversion

[kamisha100]

Hello Reefers!
I am new to salt water reef keeping. I currently have a 29 gallon Oceanic Biocube. So far all is good with the setup, which has been up since April of this year. I am having a problem with the clownfish. The smallest clown is constantly being picked on by the other 3 mostly by its Mate. To the point where it is constantly hiding in a corner or jumping to the back of the tank.
I have a 5 gallon tank thats has become available and wanted to use it as a new home for this clown. I am curious if this can be done with the MarineLand Hex 5? Will I have to do any Mods? What extra equipment will I need? Is the lighting sufficient? If not how can I upgrade?
Any help is greatly appreciated. Here is a link to my setup.:kiss:
Thank You!


YouTube - Saltwater aquarium update in HD

 

[ficklefins]

Kamisha,

The rule of thumb is 2 clowns to a tank, especially a tank of your size. Even if you remove the one from the tank now, the dominant 2 will eventually pick on the third to a point where it will become the one hiding in the corner or trying to jump out. I would skip on the 5 gallon tank and find a home for two of your clowns.

Also, a 5 gallon is a bit small as a long term tank for a clown fish.

 

[got2envy]

^ troof

they will eventually pair up and kill the left over...this has happened to me in a much larger tank.

 

[_Alex_]

like already said to many clowns to one tank... when i first started i went to petco and asked for a pair that where in the same tank. well the not so educated employee just grabbed one out of the mated pair. then when i said i wanted 2 he grabbed the single one from the tank next to it... i wsa like dude i wanted these 2!! and he is like well do u want me to put one of these back... and i was just frustrated and said no ill just take all 3. this was before i knew anything at all, were first fish we had, well got them home the mated pair just went straight after the solo one and had him running all the time.

ended up having to get a divider to keep them from killign him, and even then the one big female would charge right up to the divider at him to try and get to him. tryed to talk to petco about it and they said you could have as many as u want in a tnak they wont do that becuase they do it all the time at there store. i argued with the store manager for about 20-30 min then left went home and printed off a bunch of info we had found on net about clowns. she then appoligized and felt dumb cuz she said she had a salt tank(kinda scarey now that i think of it that she does) ask if we could return the one and got told no they do not do returns. luckily i found a nice home for the little guy in a 180 gallon tank with no other clown fish in it. and last i heard was doing great in it!

so i would try and get down to just the pair and take the others back to LFS and maybe trade for some cardinals or clown gobies

 

[kamisha100]

Thanks so much for all the input!
Can anyone give me any suggestions on how to convert the five gallon? The clown in question is still barely one inch. This could be a great home home for him.

 

[_Alex_]

petco is have a 1$ per gallon sale on tanks up to 55gal so a 55 cost 55$ and a 40breeder coz $40, 20 gal long or tall both $20 bucks go buy a 20 gallon and the clown would be fine in it that 5 hex just be to small in my opinion the fish like to swim and will need to room