Suitable tank mates for a Beastly Pair of Maroon Clowns

[Mich]

I started a 156 gallon reef back in february of 08 with the intention of making it mostly inverts and coral with a sparse community of small to moderate sized fish. The original two inhabitants were a royal gramma and a sixline wrasse; later I added two juvenille maroon clowns. While initially, all the beligerance in the tank was purely maroon on maroon, things ultimately changed as the two became quite friendly and also sexually dimorphic. The female in particular is getting quite beastly, and as of last week she's killed the royal gramma (the first fish I put in there). The sixline's been gone for a few months and now my entire 156 gallon is a two fish tank.

 

My main issues are; I don't want much more than 4 or 5 fish, I don't want anything large and dirty (I.E. Tangs). Whatever I get must be small or medium sized, non reclusive, reef compatible, aesthetically pleasing, and most importantly; not likely to incur the rage of my female maroon. Keep in mind my maroons are still pretty small (the female in still under 3" and the male is right about 2") however they're right about to that point in their relationship where they're begining to blossom into monsterhood. I would really appreciate some input from anyone out there who keeps mated maroons with other fish. I fear that if I wait too long I'll miss my window, and adding anything else will be impossible.

[sportzfish]

Tangs are dirty???

[Mich]

Tangs are dirty???

 

Relatively speaking, all fish are dirty. Tangs tend to get big, and require that I clip big sheets of constantly disintegrating Nori and the like to the interior of my system. Which makes them dirtier than most in my mind. Not that they're boxfish, but they do tend to be messy in my experince. With the kind of system I like to run, one tends to think of a protein skimmer as backup redundancy. To have very large or very numerous icthine inhabitants in my system would require a good bit of redesign.

[ryanls5]

I had maroons with a dragon wrasse, yellow tang, PBT, emperor angel and a watchman goby-the goby stayed away and the rest held their own but the female maroon assaulted anything that came with her "area" anenome. How big are the clowns? Do they have an anenome or other LPS/toadstool or whatever to host in? As territorial as they are, they will always defend their area but it helps if you have fish that roam around the whole tank like tangs or angels.

[Jon Lazar]

I don't have personal experience with maroon clowns, but I have had royal grammas and 6-lines before. IME they were very hardy and quick fish. If your maroon killed those fish in a big 156g tank, I would be concerned that they are particularly aggressive clowns and would bully any other fish you add. Maroons have the reputation of being one of the more aggressive and territorial clownfish. Mated clownfish will defend their territory more fiercely, and this is likely to get worse as they grow.

 

Maybe the maroons need their own smaller, private tank to keep everyone happy.

 

Jon