Once again, she’s very territorial and doesn’t like my hand in her space. Back on November 23rd, I made a change in diet for most of my fishes to try out the insanely popular LRS feeds; specifically the new Fertility Frenzy. Gotta record the data. It is important to also quarantine new fish before you add them to an established system. When you look closer, there are two VERY obvious and distinct groups; at minimum, these two probably should be reevaluated and split into two distinct species. There were very few releases in the 2nd year, and again, those all went to WSM pairings. Consider the story of Amphiprion barberi, a species which has carried THREE different names within my own lifetime. There are numerous differences between the Gold Stripe and White Stripe variants, so much so that at one point in the past they were described as separate species, the Gold Stripe being Premnas epigrammata. Feed, while important, is only part of the equation. I instantly saw some fish willing to gorge themselves on feed in a way that perhaps they wouldn’t on others. She may not have accepted him so quickly, but you never really know with these fish. It was recently suggested that projects like the “Gold Lightning” are being done because “people want them”…but in truth…no one has approached me ASKING for a Gold Lightning Maroon. I’m just asking you to realize what’s going on. I argue that if we give more thought to what we do, we can learn from all this history. When trying to pair a maroon with a mate, there needs to be an obvious size difference. How? There will be people who think I’m being overly dramatic, exaggerating, or plain out making this all up. Lightning Maroon Clownfish from ORA They get their name because the stripes by their gills, tail, and middle of their bodies that are typically solid have an erratic, chain, and/or electrical pattern to them. If you know of this happening in a home aquarium, leave a comment and let us know. I have to show you how, and why, all the way from the beginning. Particularly since I, and others, spent a lot of time, effort and money to do everything we could to ensure that not only was the Lightning Maroon Clownfish line pure, but that we could actually have a pure PNG provenance population right alongside having a beautiful designer gene to play with. We all know it, and the results are easily replicated at this time. If “Black” Ocellaris in Darwin were simply a genetic mutation that outcompeted the standard form, then you would more likely expect to seem some pure orange, some pure black…maybe a few subgroups within the result. When you narrow the stripes of other clownfishes, you don’t get what’s in the center, you get what’s at the edge. I’ll return to those later. So, a further reduction of the “Orange Ocellaris blood”, the offspring being now 87.5% Darwin Black, and only 12.5% Orange Ocellaris. I was not expecting it to go that well and was a bit surprised. Hell, since Sea & Reef started producing Lightning Maroon Clownfish, I cannot tell you how many times people have said “mine are better” and that “mine are worth more”. Unless there is a massive change in the attitudes of all marine fish breeders to own up to our conservation responsibility, and to attempt to educate breeders from the day they start ON that responsibility, we will lose the pure Darwin Ocellaris. I may revise / update/ correct as needed. First…to the notion that there are any “Gold Lightnings” to be had, here’s what I think. But…just like the Black Snowflake projects, there are going to be wild-type, 3 striped offspring. Clownfish carry both female and male reproductive organs. The most common diseases are marine velvet, ich, swim bladder, and brooklynella. If you see one in nature, you’ll almost always see them hosting an anemone. TIP: If you’re feeding Fertility Frenzy, be careful. It’s getting worse too, because breeders are being very tempted by the mad-scientist / ego-driven / profit-driven realities of doing things like starting to throw Gold Nuggets or Gold Flake Maroons into pairings with Lightnings. All the way back in 2006 I said it’s not a matter of “if” we’ll lose access to wild-caught marine fish, it’s only a matter of “when”. Most take it and “enjoy” it….my Altums (Pterophyllum altum) have a hard time with it, but the Betta smaragdina “Guitar” juveniles pounce on this food. What are you actually getting for a $40 buy in? No longer can you just see a Black Ocellaris and presume it to be pure. Biogeography Is What Really Matters As recently as tonight I read the commentary from someone who implied that the only way aquarists can impact conservation is that a captive bred clownfish keeps one of the reefs. An anemone is an animal closely related to the jellyfish. Based on my records this is their 59th spawn. The next few days, the eggs will grow a darker red. They’re a great fish for a beginner in the hobby. Breeders will grow and come to learn that their broodstock is garbage…and well…what happens then? These are issues of “fact”, and those who opine otherwise do so ignoring the facts, which is why I cannot take what they say very seriously. Either way, the designer lines of GSM are already at risk from wild-type White-Gold hybrids making their way into breeding programs misidentified as simply “GSM”; throwing the designer GSMs against Lightnings now only accelerates the pollution of WSM genetics into these GSM subpopulations. The next male on the hierarchy will then pair up with the new female, and continue to spawn. You can feed your clownfish various other types of food. If the fish can only be first-generation offspring, then they are NOT going to be fully Gold from a visual standpoint..that’s what the results to date suggest. Nevermind this other simple thing that people overlook – Gold Stripe Maroons are NOT GOLD at the edges of their stripes. And hopefully how you’ll see the core reason why I’m so against the “Gold Lightning Maroon Clownfish” project from the get go. Just make sure you have plenty of rock and structure so they can find a safe area to hang around. Well…that rests on my experience, my credentials, and the facts presented above. The Right Thing For Marine Fish Breeders Condition:--not specified. While hardly a scientific and controlled test, I figured changing one variable in the routine (feeding a different food, and more frequently) would at least provide some insight. It is official…the Maroon Clownfish market is going to now be a BUYER BEWARE MARKET, and there’s no turning back. They can grow up to be about 17 cm (6.7 in). 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