That said, it’s a habit I should stick to, even if it makes for rather mundane blog updates! Clownfish carry both female and male reproductive organs. Some of these fish may still not be “fully black”, which might leave some producers to sell them as “Black Ice” or “Blacker Ice” based on appearance, and not genetic makeup. How These Projects Ruin Captive Populations Yet it seems that aquarists, the ones who ought to treasure it the most, could often times care less. Maroon Clownfish are very sensitive to elevated levels of copper, and should never be exposed to levels near or above.15. One had ich and the other developed marine velvet. Therefore, we have an obligation to act as actual stewards for the species we keep. The Breeder’s Conservation Obligation They’re low maintenance, stunning to look at, and quite feisty. There are many different variations of the maroon clownfish that you’ll see. Under the current rules of taxonomy, P. epigrammata is not considered valid, and per the rules of taxonomy, “Gold Stripes” are considered the same “species” as “White Stripes”…for now. The Lightning Maroon Clownfish from Papua New Guinea, which we originally posted about in an Article yesterday, has officially gone on sale (and very quickly sold) on Blue Zoo Aquatics.This spectacular looking fish sold for a whopping $2500 (and 95 cents). The Lightning Maroon Clownfish is a gorgeous and rare fish, at this time, hailing from Papua New Guinea. However, the holdback pair, MD1 and MD2, started spawning for my good friend Mike Doty, and thus, we’ve had F2 fish available as I announced late last year. In the wild, if the female clownfish dies, the top breeding male transitions into a female. It doesn’t hurt, but it is startling. White Stripe Maroons have narrow stripes, and the netting effect created by the Lightning gene narrows things down even further. This may sound extreme, until you consider that the Banggai Cardinalfish, Pterapogon kauderni, apparently has something in the range of 14 unique genetic clades within its on very small natural range, and some conservation biologists have put forth that in order to really preserve the species, each one of those clades should be maintained independently. If other fish get stung by an anemone, it can result in serious injuries and/or death, so they stay away. I may revise / update/ correct as needed. It is really interesting to watch them care for their eggs. Don’t get suckered in by the marketing spin and hype…does your ego need so much validation that buying whatever is “newest”, and being “the first”, is more important than actually thinking about what it is you’re buying in the first place?! Lightning Maroon Clown Fish. It might not happen overnight, and more likely it would take decades. The Gold X Lightning Maroon Clown, Premnas biaculeatus, is a variant of the Gold Stripe Maroon, featuring a maroon body with exaggerating barring often almost forming an X like pattern. They may show SOME hints of yellow, but nothing like a true and pure Gold Stripe Maroon. Typically, lightning maroon clownfish are probably the most territorial of all clownfish species. If no one buys them, there is no incentive to keep going. This isn’t about “repopulating the reefs” either; while it could come to that some day, we are admittedly the last resort. Available on MiniWaters.FISH. Feel free to read about the offspring he coaxed out of this fish, and how they are slowly developing their own interesting None of this is going to change until WE ourselves change. Gold Stripes however, come from the Indian Ocean. Maroon clownfish do not tolerate other species of clownfish. This isn’t an anti-hybrid rant…there are many hybrid projects that breeders can undertake that are relatively benign. The Lightning Maroon clownfish, on the other hand, is a designer variant that took the hobby by storm (pun intended, of course). The Lightning Maroon Clownfish was found in Papua New Guinea by SEAMSART from there, ⦠The largest fish of the pair will develop female organs, and become the top of the hierarchy. See more of Le Aquatic Aquarium on Facebook Clark’s Clownfish, Amphiprion clarkii, covers a slew of variants spread out over both the Indian and Pacific Oceans. We have enough real world evidence at this point that at least I’m personally pretty confident in my predictive abilities as it pertains to primary hybrid results. It is called the Lightning Maroon Clownfish and was successfully bred in the spring of that same year. I’ve seen them retailed now as low as $150. You cannot prove otherwise…because it’s already happened and it will continue to happen; I only needed to prove it happened once for the concept to be valid, and yet, I have dozens of examples. But probably less. I have fed mine mysis shrimp, Fertility Frenzy, and Ocean Nutrition Formula One & Two. For that matter, try to find one you can actually TRUST as being legitimately PURE. Customers in the upper midwest have an added bonus; residents of MN, WI, Northern IL and Northern IA can get overnight shipping for as little as $10! In general, Maroon Clownfish are the most territorial of all clownfish species. Even I think that, pragmatically, maintaining 14+ individual genetic subgroups of what is clearly one species is unrealistic and probably overkill, but the scientists are not necessarily wrong in their thinking; in a perfect world, what they propose is what we’d do. Again, without going into many details, the reality is these days that a) we cannot get wild caught Black Ocellaris (anyone who says otherwise both hasn’t tried nor has talked to the collectors in Darwin proper), and b) based on my assertion that Darwin is a unique species, we may have already lost it to hybridization in the aquarium trade. It was always the Red Clownfish from Fiji; Geographic Variants Within Clownfishes: Clarkii Complex, The Challenging and Diverse Blue Stripe Clownfishes, The Role of Captive Propagation in Clownfish Preservation, Nearly-Extinct Redtailed Shark Isn’t Gone Yet, CORAL Magazine article on Hybrid Clownfish. There simply has not been enough time yet to do enough back crossing yet to further reduce the WSM gene load to the point where the fish will probably start behaving / looking like “pure” GSMs. The tricky part of getting maroons to spawn, is finding a partner that they will accept. Preliminary numbers suggest that. Furthermore, just from a technicality standpoint, it would be more appropriate to call these first generation hybrid offspring as White Gold Lightnings….in fact there never will be Lightning gene in a pure Gold Stripe Maroon, Premnas epigrammata, unless it is discovered / occurs spontaneously within pure GSM populations. The Thunder Maroon Clownfish was created by selective breeding of the Lightning Maroon Clownfish. At minimum, there are two species, but more likely, 3 to 5 (see “The Challenging and Diverse Blue Stripe Clownfishes“). So what are THEY sold as??? These are the fish like the pair I held back; the entire bodies of these fish are expected to break up over time into the lace-like network of red spots. Lightning maroons occurred 2 years ago “ breed out ” every last gene that came from. Said before, try to put them in our own aquariums that the responsibility of does... Currently have a breeding pair of gold helmet maroons and directions hardy fish accustomed to found. 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