Clown or Chromis
 

My tank has finished its cycle and I am looking for a first fish. I will quarentine (sp) my new fish. I am wondering if it would be a wiser choice to get two orc. clowns or two blue green chromis. Is one species more hardy than the other? The only difference that I can see is that the chromis costs $4.99 and the clowns cost $14.99 each. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Mike

What size is the tank? Chromis really don't come in pairs. They are better off in larger schools and over time they will kill each other off in a game of survival of the fitest. You can have both clownfish and chromis in the same tank without a problem as they are both in the damsel family.

i would go with the clowns. Ive generally had better luck with them in the long run

I understand that chromis are schooling fish. What I don't get is why you would want to put like six of them in a tank and just have them kill each other untill there is only two. Unless the two that are left in the end are strong little suckers and don't mess with one an other.

the more their are the more chance their aggression is spread out through the grop so no single one is being picked on. thus better chance for them to all survive

Can I just have one or is this crule for this fish?

nope you can have just one and it will be fine

how big is your tank?

90 gallon with a 20 gallon sump.

I'd go with clowns. They have much more personality. Chromis is alright, but I'm about to get rid of mine. I've had 5 for a few months and so far so good. But I want to lower my bioload a little. I'll have to admit that it is pretty cool to watch 5 chromis disappear into the center of a sps colony.

I don't know about the clowns.... I put two tank raised ocellaris into my reef at the very beginning. They became a mated pair and set up house in the tank. Unfortunately, they have become VERY territorial, and rip the fins off anything I have tried adding to the tank since then.

I tried everything... rearranging the rockwork, banishing them to the sump for a month, introducing new fish slowly by using a mesh divider. None of it worked. The pair of "peaceful" ocellaris have ripped apart four gobies (each one I got was progressively larger), a mandarin, and a sixline. I was fortunate that all of these fish recovered completely in QT tanks, but in the end I had to set up an entirely separate tank just for the clowns.

So I guess the moral is, add pairs of clowns with caution. Your tank is bigger (mine was a 36 gallon) so maybe it won't be such a problem, but my experience was horrible, and I would hate to see the same thing happen to you.

I would suggest looking at a yellow watchman goby, a royal gramma, or a coral beauty as alternatives. They are all inexpensive, fun to watch, quite hardy, and aren't as prone to territoriality issues. Also, I would buy these fish as small as possible. IME the smaller fish always adjusted best, and were very friendly to neighbors. Best of luck!!

I highly recommend a pair of Ocellaris clownfish. Super personality. Mine mated up just fine, and they're great to watch.

My male likes to sleep later than the female, and every morning she gently but firmly nudges him to wake up and get swimming.

I had 5 chromis before I got the clowns. The chromis had no personality. I was not sorry to see them go.

Oh I definitely agree that the pair is fun to watch. Mine are awesome as well, but it makes them harder to like when they try to kill everything else I put in the tank. Now that they are in a new tank they are great, but it was a major PITA dealing with their aggression.

A few fish [highfin gobies, clowns] seem to like to be in pairs. More are perfectly content with World Domination, ie, they're the only of their kind in 300 miles and they'll chew up any of their species that comes close. Chromis and firefish will reduce the numbers of the group until, in their own opinion, they don't feel rivaled any more. Certain others [lionfish] just eat their tankmates: they view any addition as food.
Get a vision of the tank you want to have, whether all-fish, fish-corals, etc, and decide what specific collection of fish would do well for you.
Go to a vendor like Live Aquaria or Reefer Madness and just shop a bit and look at LA's Compatibility Chart. Pay attention to adult size, and food requirements.

And bravo for proposing to start into this qt-ing and planning.

I have 8 chromis and 4 perc clowns. they get along and my chromis look great expecially when they all change direction at once. Just depends on if you will be sad that you lost a $15 dollar fish over a $5 fish. Also if you buy clowns make sure you get them all at once... will be easier. Make sure that they are all different sizes. my 4 are noticably different in size and my male and female spawn regularly. if you buy 2 get one that is half the size of the other.

i got 2 bluegreen chromis, 2 oc clowns and 2 yellow chromis, if i would redo that, i would get 3 blue greens and 2 oc clowns and no yellow. Theyre all doing well together

I agree on getting the clowns. Great personality and great to watch. Besides you know that your company is going to go right for the tank and look for "nemo".

especially kids lol "daddy look look nemo" lol

Thanks everybody! I think that I will go with the two mated clowns. I think that I will get one or two chromis down the road. The only reason that I want to get a chromis is that my mom likes them. I want to try to please her because my tank is in her kitchen and she doesn't like it much (especially since my first 5 gallon flood! :) ). Hopefully her opinion will change when I have a successful reef aquarium with all kinds of cool fishies!

Once again thanks everybody!
Mike

LOL, yeah I guess I understand that. How big is the tank? Maybe you can add them both is close succession. I know people say to wait a month or so between fish but to be honest most people don't do that and are perfectly successful. Just make sure that you check for any mini spike in ammonia and such and if all is good get some more. This especially holds true in larger tanks. I think where you need to be cautious is to not add like 10 fish at a time, but in some cases I think as long as you are careful you can get away with more.

I agree with most of what everyone said. I originally started with 6 chromis, and I cant say for sure what happened to the others, I was down to 2 pretty quickly. They are doing great for about 2 mos. now. I just added 2 clowns, unmated, and they are great buddies with the 2 chromis! They all hang out together and swim around with no problems whatsoever. I have a 55g tank and for now, its in perfect harmony! Im scared to add any more fish!!! Ha ha!

I think my chromis add a fun diversity to my tank. They swim around my tank in a neat little group and change colors as the light hits them differently. I think you said you had a 90, and IMO adding some chromis won't really affect your bioload much.

If you mom likes them, I'd get a few since they're so cheap. They're compatible with anything that isn't going to eat them. (like a lionfish)