can I mix Black/White Ocellaris w/ normal Ocellaris

[jejton]

Animals who in the wild would never meet often do mate in captivity. Many things prevent species from intermixing in the wild - different mating seasons, habitats, active time, anatomics, behavioral etc. In captivity, many of these issues are not present so you will often get unnatural pairing and spawning. Whether you want to do that purposely, is another discussion.

Devious - Most anemone species live ( relative to humans ) long life spans. Granted I haven't done a scientific study but a cursory glance through any reef forum/site - MR, RC, WWM, etc - and you will find plenty of anectodal evidence. Most specimens that make it into your LFS are already in bad shape due to poor shipping/capture/acclimation. Then they are often - if not usually - bought for completely inadequate systems. How many threads have we seen - my anemone got blended in the PH, puked its guts and died, shriveled and died, refuses to eat and died, stung half my corals and died. So even a ' sucess story ' of lets say five years in a hobbysit tank compared to a natural lifespan of 100 years or more for many species, is not really a sucess story. Add that to the fact that a large percentage of people buy ( the wrong ) anemone to host their clowns in the mistaken belief that its needed for the clowns.

 

[ellebelle]

I was just searching around for hybrids on rareclownfish.com, and it seems there are quite a few hybrids floating around out there, as well as some that hybridize in the wild as well. Upon even further probing, it seems there is some argument as to whether certain clownfish species are really species or simply hybrids of other valid species. There also seems to be some argument as to whether all hybrids produce viable fry though - especially the ones the are forced in aquaria. Cool stuff!

 

[Deanos]

Marine Ornamental Fish & Invert Breeders - Clownfish/Anemonefish

Search this forum and you'll find it is fine to mix different color morphs of A. ocellaris.

 

[DevIouS]

Devious - Most anemone species live ( relative to humans ) long life spans. Granted I haven't done a scientific study but a cursory glance through any reef forum/site - MR, RC, WWM, etc - and you will find plenty of anectodal evidence. Most specimens that make it into your LFS are already in bad shape due to poor shipping/capture/acclimation. Then they are often - if not usually - bought for completely inadequate systems. How many threads have we seen - my anemone got blended in the PH, puked its guts and died, shriveled and died, refuses to eat and died, stung half my corals and died. So even a ' sucess story ' of lets say five years in a hobbysit tank compared to a natural lifespan of 100 years or more for many species, is not really a sucess story. Add that to the fact that a large percentage of people buy ( the wrong ) anemone to host their clowns in the mistaken belief that its needed for the clowns.

Jejton-
I won't go into too much into this as this is a different topic, but your statement above basically applies to every single thing we add to our tanks....be it corals, fish, etc.

You initial comment made it appear as if anemones are expert care only or just have a bad track record in captivity, which is not the case (certain anemones of course).
They definitely have special requirements (lighting, placement, etc.), which should be researched before attempting to house one, but overall they fair well in captivity.
There are plenty of members (including myself) who are housing / have housed anemones for a decent amount of time, which are thriving.
All my anemones (RBTA's & Carpet) that I have sold throughout the forum continue to do well.

Poor shipping/capture/acclimation & death by equipment can apply to any live-stock we put in our tanks, so being regarded as they "die in a short period" is a bit off.
Of course in nature, anything we put in our tanks will live longer.

 

[jejton]

You are right in that those apply to most of what we keep in captive but taking your argument to its logical extension, people should not be discourage from keeping certain harder species such as dragonnets. Perhaps some people have sucess but compared to the rates of failure overall, they are better off left in the ocean. If you have 1 sucess for every 20 ( just arbitrary number ) failures, maybe that species should be reconsidered in favor of one for which there tends to be more sucesses. From a conservationist point of view at least it makes sense.

 

[DevIouS]

Apples & oranges comparing a well known hard to keep dragonnete to Anemones.


Back to clownies.

 

[cali_reef]

I am pretty sure CB747 breed two different species of clowns together successfully.

 

[h20 freak]

Here are my clowns in a 29g cube.

:banghead: