White cap clown and friends

[brianemone]

Hi all

I'm picking up my white cap/bonnet clown on saturday afternoon.

at the moment the only other fish that i have is a Perc clown (female) i have had her for about 2 years, she was actually my first marine fish.

It is very rare that a cap clown would become available here in NZ and so when i saw it on the list of new arrivals at a Fish shop i had to buy it.

the guy that works at the fish shop is fairly clued up and i asked him if he thought that it was still a juvinile and he said yes it looks like it.

So my question is will the cap clown and the perc pair up?? i realise its possible (same amp.. family) but ha anyone seen it before???

i obviously would prefer to have a pair but beggars cant be choosers

[CanesDave]

If it were me, I wouldn't risk putting the white cap in with the other clown. The larger female might torture the newcomer and you could risk the loss of a hard to find fish. I guess it is possible that they could pair up, but I would be more cautious with that fish and quarantine/observe for a while first.

[phender]

Here is a thought. See if you can find an A. sandaracinos(orange skunk) that is smaller than your white cap and let them go through QT together. Some data I looked at showed that seeing a pair of white caps in nature is the exception rather than the rule. They are more often paired with chrysopterus or sandaracinos in the wild.
White cap x orange skunk would likely give you as many white cap looking babies as a white cap pair would.

[brianemone]

hi

the skunk was my second option if my perc doesnt seem to take to the white cap. she is actually a fairly easy going she clown and i have paired her before but her partner was continually harrased by a sixline wrasse so the wrasse had to go (unfortunatly the partner died while i had someone looking after them for me)

the tank it is going into is 120gallon so there should be plenty of room for them.

if worst comes to worst i will take out the perc and find a skunk (as i like them as well)

[maww]

ditto on Phil's suggestion. You might even consider adding the cap and an A. sand. at the same time- 120 gallons should be big enough for everybody, and they could make up their own minds on mates.

[brianemone]

well i picked him up yesterday afternoon, popped in him the tank.

jeffery the perc came up to check out the new tank mate (she has been alone for about 4 months)

she first showed the new clown that it was his territory by clamping on to the caps tail so a second, he then let go and did a little charge to test the clown and the Cap straight away did his little side on shake to demonstrate his submission and after a few false charges and some more shaking they seem pretty happy. feeding will be the next hurdle, ive never heard of healthy clowns turning down food though.

[brianemone]

the little fella ate some flake food this morning.

[marinebetta]

That's a nice looking cap....I like them marked like that. Hope he does well for you!

[brianemone]

thanks, i will more than likely end up getting an orange skunk for him to pair with as the perc and the cap just look very unnatural together