3 Clowns in one tank?

[trackfast]

What would you do in this scenario?

I have one "regular" clown in my tank. I acquired two more (1 regular; 1 B&W); they came from the same tank. Do I keep the two together or try to get the three in one tank? I read an article that was in the RC archives explaining clown behavior so I have an idea what I want to do. What would you do? The idea of two pairing would be nice and just removing the third into another tank. But having to take out the rock just to catch the third clown is not appealing. Although, clowns aren't as hard to catch as damsels. Would the size of the clowns figure into your actions? Thanks for your time.

 

[Cubbies]

Personally I would put the two that came from the same tank together and put the third clown in a separate tank and find him a partner down the road. The reason I say this is because the clowns from the same tank probably are comfortable with each other by now and if you throw three in the tank chances are one is gonna end up gone. My .02

 

[ColaAddict]

9/10 clowns will fight if they are different species. the two from same tank might even try to kill the single clown. you can try mixing them and move the single clown if you see them pick on that clown, but most of the time they fight, sometimes to death. Are they all the same (perculas or ocellaris)?

 

[scotty]

i say put them together, change the rocks up a little so its a new setup for all 3 of them, and see what happens.

size of the tank is immensely important, people have multiple pairs fighting over multiple anemone's, so its fine to have 3, as long as there is space for them to all call home, rather than a 10 gallon tank they have to share, that wont end well.

 

[trackfast]

Thanks for the comments. I'm not sure if they're ocellaris or percula, BTW. Greno, that's exzactly what I did. The two already got along so I didn't want to mess with that. I have Nanos so rearranging rock would have helped but I don't know for how long.