Mixing clowns (ya I know) but this is diff

[catinhat]

I have a pair of False perc's that are best buds. But of coarse they are TR and dumb as a box of rocks. I was thinking of also getting a pair of black and white false perc's. They are both false perc's and I know you can keep a bunch of those together. But my question is what will it do to sexes and such of all four of them. Will each pair remain a pair or will I end up with a bunch of miss matched sexes and confused fish? thx

[JHardman]

Hi

If your current pair is a truly a pair, one female and one male, they will likely keep their pair bond and sex if you were to add more clownfish to the tank. Same for the new pair.

All clownfish start out sexless. Once they are old enough (12-18 months) they can change sex depending on their environment. They are protandrous hermaphrodites, meaning that they switch from sexless to male to female. A male fish can become a female. Once a change has been made there is no going back, in other words a male can not become sexless again, and a female can not become sexless or male again.

Now with that said, your fish given enough room will likely keep the sex that they entered the tank with.

As to keeping “a bunch of them together�, well that is somewhat of a different situation than you are proposing. Clownfish form hierarchies in the wild, the hierarchy consists of a mated pair and subordinate sexually immature fish that may or may not be physically mature. So if you were to add a mated pair of new clownfish they would likely not be accepted in the same territory as the established pair and would have to stake out their own territory. But if you were to add two sexually immature fish, there is a possibility that they we will accepted into the hierarchy that already exists in your tank, they also might get chased off and have to establish new territory. As long as you have a big enough tank for two pairs to establish territory you will likely be OK with Percs and false Percs, but be prepared to remove the new comers if need be.