Ocellaris or Percula poll

[John_Brandt]

That fish was raised here. There is no way to get pictures of its parents, I never kept a record of where it came from.
That guy is in my coral greenhouse at work, hes in full sunlight, perhaps part of the reason it has such dark color. Clowns change color depending on what they are hosting in and what kind of lighting they get. Clarkiis for example always turn very dark to black under metal halide lights. Clownfish, when hosting in zoanthids develop polka-dots. The clownfish in the picture I posted was hosting in some xenia.

time for lunch!

I hope you had a good luch, Dustin

Now.....

Wild Amphiprion ocellaris grow up and live out their lives in full equatorial sunlight and they do not look much like the fish in that photo. Can you post any photos of this orphan fish's "siblings"?

Don't take this offensively, but, can you prove that that fish is not A. percula?

 

[DustinDorton]

Matt, Im the production manager for corals. I take care of several of our most difficult pairs as well. My hands on experience with larvae is minimal, but growing almost as we speak.


John, I wish I could provide photos of the parents for you. There are two main reasons I can't. First one being that normally more than one ocellaris spawn is set up in the same tank. Second, there is no record of where this fish came from. If it was another species, it might be a possibility, but we have a LOT of pairs of ocellaris.

Your right, wild ocellaris do grow up in full sun. I think its a combination of the full sun (darkening the fish) and whatever it is they are hosting in. Look at my example of zoanthids and polka-dots. You never see polka-dot clownfish coming in from the wild, but in one of my zoanthid tanks there are 3 species of clowns, all exhibiting this.
Also, our true percula clown fish are raised in limited numbers because we have never gotten a spawn to come out normal. They are 100% missbarred, and they never have any black on them.

I will post a picture (not a good one) of a polka-dot true percula, and I will look for a picture of a juvenile true perc as well.

 

[DustinDorton]

John, here are some pictures of some true percs that I had. One pair went out as a trade to someone, and the spots were lost very quickly

If you look at those pictures you will see what I am talking about in regards to the misbarring. Also notice the eye color.

 

[John_Brandt]

It has been said here and in other places, that the black blotches on clownfish living in association with zooanthids is caused by stinging. This would explain why the spots were lost upon relocation.

I do believe you Dustin. I just want to learn as much as I can.

Are there photos of other ocellaris from the same brood as the photographed fish?

 

[DustinDorton]

That fish came out of the hatchery a long time ago. If there was a way to track where fish were from the same spawns, they would be long gone and in someones tank by now.

Monday I will go grab a couple more juveniles and put them in one of my systems, and take some more pictures of the whole event for you.

Dustin

 

[esmithiii]

The interesting thing I learned about these fish when visiting the hatchery in Salinas, PR was that dark offspring can come from very light parents, and that when breeding two dark specimine, you rarely get all-dark offspring.

Nice specimine, BTW.