4 Clowns in one Tank?

[Hoodstream]

After forever I’m finally setting up my 60g and looking to tear down my smaller tanks. I have two snowflakes paired and two black and white paired. In a 60g does anyone foresee this being an issue? It’s 5 feet long a lot of room.

 

[blaxsun]

Honestly, it all really depends on the clownfish. The fact that they're both paired works in your favor, so I'd give it a greater than 50-50 chance of success.

 

[bradleym]

I had a 7 foot tank with 2 BTAs and a Magnifica. When I added a new pair of clowns, they kicked my original clowns out of the Magnifica, and the original clowns wouldn't take the BTAs and just swam forlornly in a corner until I rehomed the new pair. So yeah, it's really hard to say what results you'll get.

 

[Hoodstream]

I had a 7 foot tank with 2 BTAs and a Magnifica. When I added a new pair of clowns, they kicked my original clowns out of the Magnifica, and the original clowns wouldn't take the BTAs and just swam forlornly in a corner until I rehomed the new pair. So yeah, it's really hard to say what results you'll get.

Worse case at this point is my in laws get a FOWLR tank with two black clowns

 

[Hoodstream]

Honestly, it all really depends on the clownfish. The fact that they're both paired works in your favor, so I'd give it a greater than 50-50 chance of success.

Hoping it works out

 

[pecan2phat]

Off subject, sorry Hoodstream but I wanted to quickly ask bradleym if BTAs and Ritteri are 100% safe with each other in the same tank.

 

[bradleym]

Off subject, sorry Hoodstream but I wanted to quickly ask bradleym if BTAs and Ritteri are 100% safe with each other in the same tank.

They are not. They can do OK together but you have to have a large system, run carbon, and do frequent water changes. Otherwise you will definitely notice a slow decline in the BTAs. Mine was a total of 350 gallons and I was doing biweekly 40 gallon water changes because I wanted to feed my anemones but still grow SPS. (Yes I know, SPS dominated AND anemone dominated is also a bad mix. I get obsessive easily and don't compromise well.)

 

[pecan2phat]

Thank you Sir!

 

[Obsessed with fish]

I wouldn't have more than 2 clowns unless your aquarium is above 150 gallons.

 

[drknudsenx2]

They are not. They can do OK together but you have to have a large system, run carbon, and do frequent water changes. Otherwise you will definitely notice a slow decline in the BTAs. Mine was a total of 350 gallons and I was doing biweekly 40 gallon water changes because I wanted to feed my anemones but still grow SPS. (Yes I know, SPS dominated AND anemone dominated is also a bad mix. I get obsessive easily and don't compromise well.)

Could you elaborate on this more? I have both a magnifica anemone and a rbta and up until recently they were both doing great. I attributed it to a rise in phosphates due to adding new rock, as well as Kessils that we’re going bad. I upgraded to radions and did a big water change and they have both improved. Both were hand fed shrimp this morning and ate well. But I’d like to know what I should be worried about. They do both stay on opposite sides of the tank and always have.

 

[bradleym]

Could you elaborate on this more? I have both a magnifica anemone and a rbta and up until recently they were both doing great. I attributed it to a rise in phosphates due to adding new rock, as well as Kessils that we’re going bad. I upgraded to radions and did a big water change and they have both improved. Both were hand fed shrimp this morning and ate well. But I’d like to know what I should be worried about. They do both stay on opposite sides of the tank and always have.

My experience (I am no expert and your mileage may vary) is that I did just fine when I had the setup I described. Then I had a tank crash (bad magnet leaking heavy metals). Five years later I was rebuilding. I had several types of coral, several fish, a carpet anemone and multiple BTAs (same as before). But I was being very lax on maintenance, and no longer running carbon. Everything was doing well, I just didn't have the same obsession for SPS as last time.

I stumbled across a very healthy Magnifica at a LFS and tossed it into my sump to acclimate. I usually do this for a few weeks with new anemones to make sure they are easy to remove/treat just in case things go south. Within about a week, all of the BTAs and the carpet started acting as though I had tank issues (high nutrients/high salinity/low alkalinity type responses). They would shrink and expand multiple times a day, and just act... unhappy, spending more time shrunken as the weeks went on. They would improve for a few days after a water change and then get worse again. Meanwhile the Magnifica continued to look beautiful and grow bigger.

Long story short, the carpet gave up the ghost while I was figuring out that I needed to get back to the old routine, then after things calmed down, I put the Magnifica in the display. It stayed put long enough for me to think it was safe to remove the guards on my powerheads and walked into one the next day while I was at work. After it passed in quarantine I stopped using carbon and slacked off on water changes again. The BTAs have been fantastic ever since.

 

[Hoodstream]

Just a heads up from last night to today the clowns aren’t fighting they actually found a Little Rock formation they like below the HOB skimmer and all 4 are “hosting” a rock. No aggression between any of the fish. Will update but so far I got
- 1 Yellow tail damsel
- 4 Clowns
- Midas blenny
- Bicolor blenny
- Lawnmower
- Diamond Goby
- YWG
- Sailfin Tang
- Six Line

and no aggression anywhere as of now. Don’t crucify me I literally just put a 125g on the credit card and will move the sailfin when it gets bigger it’s the size of a golf ball now. Incase anyone stumbles upon this for future reference and needs to see stocking ideas and compatibility.