Advice on Clown Behavior

[BradC]

Here's the deal.
I have 40g show reef aq. that's the home for 2 false percula clowns. My tank has been set up for about 19 months. All parameters are normal.
The clowns who are tank raised have been hosting (somewhat) in the Toadstool and in the Hairy Green Mushroom coral that surrounds the toadstool.

I recently inherited an H.crispa (6 days ago) from a friend who was no longer able to care for it. It’s in the process of adjusting to its new home.
Prior to accepting the anemone, I did some research on it. I've read that it needs a host to help it establish and propagate in the tank.

Here's my question(s). Should I provide another host for the H.crispa, which would mean another species of clown (either a Clark's, Bluestripe, True Percula, Pink Skunk or Saddleback) in my tank? Or should I hold out and see if one of the two Falsies take up residence in the new anemone?
(At this point neither of them have shown any interest in their purple tank mate.)

If I introduce a new species of clown, would they get along? Would they compete over territories?

In my current set up, I've cleared a space on the sand bed on the opposite side of the tank from the Toadstool. So the H.crispa pretty much has about a 1/3 of the tank to its self.

The list of Clown's that I reference above came from this site: http://www.amdareef.com/ho_anemones.htm

I think I forgot to mention that the H.crispa's original host passed away prior to me inheriting it.

All advice welcome.

Thanks,
Brad.

 

[Anonymous]

I bet your ocellaris would eventually adopt the crispa, but it may take some time.

 

[wombat1]

Even if they don't an anemone will do fine without a guest. Just feed it a little more than you would normally. Clowns feed anemones their waste so it will be losing this as a nutrition source.

 

[BradC]

MiniMe & Wombat,

Thanks for the advice. I'll let you know how it goes.

Brad.

 

[dvb]

I have a 55 and had two Percula clowns. I added a Clarks clown after I got a rose anemone because the perculas wouldn't go near it. They liked my hammer coral.

After I added the clarks clown everything was fine......for a while. After a month or so, the clarks clown grew and grew and evetually started beating the crap out of the perculas. So much so that they would hide all of the time or stay up in the top front corner of the tank. My experience didn't work out so well for the perculas.

I would figure out which clowns you want more and stick with one kind. Or be content with an anemone that doesn't have any clowns in it.

In any case, if you don't have it, get the book 'Clownfishes' by Joyce Wilkerson. She goes into all of this stuff. The book is very worth while.