[oama]

Asking questions is good. Making wild speculations is not.
There is a difference.
As an example...
"Are they back breeding/inbreeding these fish to get Snowflakes?"
"They are inbreeding the fish to produce Snowflakes."

The former is an inquisitive question. The later wild speculation.

From the history of remarks about these fishes here on RC, there tends to be much more of the later. And, in fact, that, TTBOMK is wrong.

Only one pair produces this variant. No offspring have been noted as being spawning as of yet. So that eliminates inbreeding. Also, the parents are "Normal" A. ocellaris. As in that they show no signs of extra white. So, selective breeding is ruled out. Only a low percentage of the offspring are Snowflake. This is TTBOMK.

From my personal experience of pairing/spawning/rearing clownfish, I have found that they do not follow what is "normal" genetic traits as far as coloring/barring is concerned. Yes, misbarring can be induced. You have to understand the process.

Barring starts with the head bars, then the mid bar and finally the tail bar (in most cases, speaking of A. ocellaris/percula). Mostly, all this occurs during the larval stage. If conditions are right (aka bad), this process can be interrupted. AIUI, the process is run genetically, but the process can be interrupted to produce mis-barring. Genes are turned on to produce the white bars. But if they are interfered with, the process is not completed or never turned on.

As all fish/fry in a clutch mature at different rates, this makes it very difficult to produce a high percentage of a desired mis-barring. Thus the vast variation, if this happens.

One must also take into account that the vast majority of wild clown fish spawns do not survive to settle out. The percentage of survival is vastly greater in a captive environment. So, you would expect to see variations that one does not see in the wild. Often mild deformities that would be lethal in the wild do survive in a hatchery. Namely, missing operculum. Which has been seen through out mariculture. From clownfish to redfish (a food/gamefish).

I have no experience with spawning Snowflakes A. ocellaris, as they are only produce from England. I do have various experience with other variants such as Naked A. ocellaris and Picasso A. percula. And I can say that genetics play a much more major role than "induction". Though, as stated before, these fish do not follow the regular "recognized" rules in inheritance. Or if they do, it is above my head. At this point in time, I would say that we just don't know enough about the process. White stripes, extra or misbars, are a phenotype (an outward expression of the genes). We just don't know enough about the process in this family.

Stepping off the soap box....