Even fishstore employees and fishstore owners are often confused by the differences between these two similar looking clownfish. Sometimes they are fairly easy to tell one form another, and sometimes they are not. There are some visual signs or clues as to which clown is which.
Some clowns are big, some clowns are small, with different colors and stripes. Some clowns even work at local fishstores (a joke)! Others and I have often found that the least reliable sign to rely on for identification between the ocellaris clownfish (false percula) and the percula clownfish (true percula) is often the sign on some dealers' tanks! (Sadly true in some areas!) A good number of clownfish labeled "percula" and "true percula" clownfish, that I've seen for sale, are actually ocellaris clownfish that are labeled as "true percula" clownfish or just as "percula" clownfish. It is a fairly common practice for many store owners to differentiate between these two fish by labling them either "true percula and "false percula." It's too bad when an ocellaris clownfish is misslabled and the price is also marked up to correspond with the naturally higher cost of obtaining true percula clownfish. This may even be the fault of the wholesaler passing them on as the wrong fish in some cases. If YOU can't tell the difference between these two fish, then you might still be just as happy buying only ocellaris labeled either way! They are both fairly mellow clownfish compared to some other clownfish. Ocellaris are often the slightly mellower of the two types.
Here are some differentiating signs you might want to look for. The percula usually has a lower height dorsal fin than the ocellaris and one or two more dorsal fin spines. The height of the fully extended dorsal fin is easy to see, but try counting the dorsal spines while the fish swims in it's waddling motion! I can't count them so I don't worry much about this sign, except in a picture. Also, the percula clownfish often has a face with more pronounced bulging structure, or more of a frog looking face with bulging eyes and cheekbones when viewed head on. The ocellaris' face is more plain looking in comparison when viewed head on. Some say the "eyes" have it. Perculas quite often have have a pure bright orange iris around the black pupil. This often gives them the illusion of having smaller eyes, or a beady little eyed look, as some say. Ocellaris clowns more often have a grayish orange iris which gives them the illusion of a larger looking eye than some percula clownfish. But, this sign isn't always reliable. Percula clownfish more often than not have more black coloration on their bodies than the similar looking ocellaris clownfish. This includes wider black margins which divide the orange and white markings. Ocellaris clownfish usually have thin black dividing margins between the orange and white. This overall darker coloration of the percula is recognized by most hobbyists as the most recognizable difference between these two fish. Percula clownfish from certain locations are mostly black with a fair amount of white and just a little bit of orange. Other than the extra spines in the dorsal fin, these other signs aren't foolproof and are not always reliable.
Here's the real clincher: The difference in these fish is regional. True percula clownfish come from Singapore and eastward to the Solomon Islands and southward to Australia. The equally fine (in my opinion) ocellaris clownfish come from the islands west and north of Singapore. The western tip of Singapore is the dividing line for the territories of these two fish. Still endless years of natural selection from breeding around separated islands produces some small differences within each species so that not all of each species looks exactly the same. It is still very often difficult to find out where your clownfish fish really came from. Many fishstores can't positively trace the origins of where each fish was captured.
I would recommend either type for most reef aquariums, unless you already have an aggressive dominant clownfish of another species in your tank. They are beautiful, fun and usually hardy fish. Although, there is often a problem with new shipments of especially ocellaris clowns. The problem is that many batches shipped into fish stores mysteriously die within a week or so of arrival. A parasitic blight is only ONE of the blamed causes for these sometimes heavy losses. I haven't heard the "final" story on this yet.
Tank raised clownfish of these species don't have this problem and are even hardier otherwise. You are sure to get young fish with a good projected life span rather than possibly an older clownfish with stunted growth from living in a community of clowns in the lower echelons of the pecking order. Each type of clownfish is also positively identifiable and just as beautiful if not more so than the wild caught ones. If your local fishstores can't get good survivable clownfish or captive bred fish, but would like to get some, see the online article about captive raised fish and C-Quest by Joyce Wilkerson at www.aquariumfrontiers.com (I think it is the July/August 1997 issue). She gives instructions at the end of her article on how YOUR favorite fishstores actually CAN order many varieties of captive bred fish directly from C-Quest. They only sell to wholesalers and dealers. They can tell your favorite fishstore which wholesalers to go through to include these fish in with their regular orders of everything else. They might want to start out with some ocellaris, perculas, Arabian (neon) dottybacks and pseudochromis fridmani (flashy purple orchid dottybacks) since they are good sellers. AMDA (can be found in FAMA and MFM magazines) can also help your favorite store with this problem and help them find good sources to get the best values on healthy "real drug-free" wild caught fish. Value isn't always the same as lowest price! Any healthy surviving fish is a better value than the lowest priced fish that dies soon. It would be great to see more stores offer hardy captive bred fish and let the public know about these advantages. I hope you find which ever clown is which, which you're looking for.
by
Tom Miller
No comments:
Post a Comment