Orange and Black Ocellaris living together - Bad Idea?

Ever since making the big switch into the reef tank world about a year and a half ago, I have gotten TONS of bad advice. One of which, I don't know if it was truly bad advice or if it was just someone's wishful thinking, or not listening to what I wanted.

I knew I wanted clown fish ever since I got the idea of starting a reef tank. I did research on them, wanted to keep it relatively simple and get two ocellaris clown fish. The goal was to start off with two, after time for the tank to get mature enough, I would add an anemone and hope they would become a bonded pair and host the anemone.

When I got to the LFS, they had a group of new clown fish together, about 9 total, all in a group intermingling. They were all exactly the same looking except for two. The first one was an orange misbar ocellaris which they said they didn't realize they had, because they didn't order it, therefor they wouldn't charge me extra. He was so cool looking to me, I had to have him.

The other one that stood out was a single black ocellaris. I said to the people working at that LFS that I didn't know that the different species (all the orange ones and the black one) could live together.

I was told, "If they were full grown, you couldn't introduce them together, but being that they are so young still, if you raise them together from this size, they won't know the difference and will eventually become a bonded pair."

Fast forward 9 months later, they always got along, would swim together, everything seemed fine. Until I added an anemone. Immediately after the addition, they seemed to be battling over the new real-estate. The misbar won. Now that he has his anemone, he doesn't want anything to do with the black ocellaris. They do not fight, aren't aggressive towards each other, but he never lets the black ocellaris near his anemone.

Fast forward again, the anemone recently split into two. I at first was thinking that at least they could each have one... I was wrong. Perhaps the misbar one hasn't chosen which ones he likes better but he is now very possessive over both of them, and so the black ocellaris won't go near either one.

My questions, concerns and fears are:

Is it a bad idea to continue to keep both?

I'm sure it's preference, but is it better to have two that are bonded?

Will the misbar ocellaris eventually settle one one anemone?

What are your guys other thoughts about it?

 

From what I know it's like with any bonding animals. Sometimes they'll bond and sometimes they wont. Sometimes they're tolerate each other to a extent and some will murder each other. To me from the sounds of it they did not bond like you wanted. Personal preference of mine would take them out and try to get a true bonded pair that way I wouldn't have to go through trial and error with different pairs. As for the anemone I don't have much experience with clowns and them but I heard that clowns will sometimes host multiple thing throughout their life span and may settle on one thing and may not. pretty much all the info I know. Hope this helped.

 

First its the anemone that hosts the clown not the clown hosting the anemone.(common mistake)
In the wild a group of babyclowns sometimes 6 or more will form a clan so to speak.The number of anemones available may play a factor in the size of these clans.As they mature one will obtain dominance over the rest and change to female.The rest will remain male until a replacement is needed.Clowns can change from male to female but not from female to male which is the reason people suggest buying them as small as possible to assure you are purchasing sub adult males.This increases the odds of a successfull pairing but with clowns nothing is guaranteed.Sometimes the breeding pair will drive out the remaining males.Sometimes they won't.It is fine to mix different colors of the same species for the most part.That is how they are making "designer" varieties.As long as they are not beating each other up I would leave them be.One day you could come home to a batch of eggs.lol good luck.

 

+1 to ^^^

Also, FWIW, clownfish are not inherently immune to anemone stings, they must possess or acquire a slime coat that prevents them from being stung. In captivity, some won't bother- that has happened to me more times than not, unfortunately. It's possible that the black clown is one of those, despite his desire to maintain relationship with the misbar. Either way, they'll be fine as long as there's no serious aggression.

 

i had a picasso clown and a ora black clown pair up and they were together for 5 years until the tank got brooklynella. there was some aggression at first but they finally got along. some clowns will work, some wont. its kinda a trial and error thing unfortunately.

 

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it. Like I said before, when I first got into saltwater tanks, I received a lot of bad advice from a particular LFS. As I know better now about most things, it helps a lot to confirm with a group of more knowledgeable people here. Thanks again.

 

clowns are very unpredictable creatures. As said, they may just one day bond - and they may change their behavior toward the nems. the fact they are different colors shouldn't really be a problem in terms of possibly bonding.

 

We've all been there, that's why we're here. LFSes are in business to make money; unfortunately, their greed outweighs their better judgement far too often...

 

I had an LFS try to sell me fish at the same time i was taking my first tank home. I never went back there.

 

Both of mine are misbars, the darker one is a mutt from a black and orange false perc and the other is an orange false perc. both do well together but are mean to my hand and other tank mates depending on the day.

before she turned completely black


both of them together