Anything special about this pair of clowns?

[C_Kritter]

Just wondering if anything was special about this pair of clowns. I got this pair and distributor said it was the Lord Howe Clownfish. I thought they were just the ordinary saddleback but the coloration seems to be different. the body is purely black with white bands. nose and fins are yellow. is this something special or just another pair of clowns?

ramon
CKritter Zoo Collection

[C_Kritter]

another pic

Ramon
CKritter Zoo Collection

[badirt]

Its a juvi A. Polymnus
http://wish.wodonga.tafe.edu.au/kwaldon/poly.htm


Lord Howe Clownfish is the common name for A.Mccullochi too bad it wasn't one.

[MarinaP]

Nice A.polymnus that you have there. Ditch your distributor/LFS.

[JHardman]

Yep black variant of A. Polymnus. I sure hope you didn't pay too much for them. They are pretty common in the trade and often sold as "black Percula" or "Sebae" by uninformed or fraudulent LFS. Their common name is saddleback clownfish.

The A. Latezonatus aka Lord Howe or Wide Band Clownfish are more or less rare. They are not exclusive to the Lord Howe Island area, which is what makes them available from time to time. A mature mated pair would sell for anywhere from $300 to $1000 for the pair. They are also not tropical and require a lower temp than most reef/FO tanks are kept at.

That being said, I hope you did not pay that much for nice but common clowns.

Here is a picture of the A. Latezonatus http://fishbase.com/Photos/PicturesS...6&what=species

HTH

[Pumba]

Hardman,
How hard are latezeontus to get to breed? A local collecter here regularly has pairs for around $70AUD...
I have often thought about getting a pair of them and giving them a go, but have always been told they are pretty hard to get to spawn and should be rated as hard to breed as the skunk complex.

What are your thoughts?

Cheers,
Matt

[lemmiwinks]

i bought my pair for $30 AUD in perth. wholesale though

[C_Kritter]

BADIRT- thanks for the greta link. great resource to have

JHARDMAN - thanks for the additional info on the Lore Howe clownfish. no i did not pay a lot of money for this. they just seem to not have any idea what it was and he took a guess. i still like the fish.

thanks all.

ramon
CKirtter Zoanthids

[JHardman]

Originally posted by Pumba
Hardman,
How hard are latezeontus to get to breed? A local collecter here regularly has pairs for around $70AUD...
I have often thought about getting a pair of them and giving them a go, but have always been told they are pretty hard to get to spawn and should be rated as hard to breed as the skunk complex.

What are your thoughts?

Cheers,
Matt

From my research they are nearly impossible to get to spawn. As far as I know only two people have ever got them to spawning. A lot of very good breeders have tried too.

Since you are breeding, I would pass on them. They require a cooler system temp and with the low likelihood that they will ever breed you might well be wasting your time. But hey if you are the adventurous type go for it. Who knows maybe you will be the one to figure them out.

[lemmiwinks]

Originally posted by JHardman
From my research they are nearly impossible to get to spawn. As far as I know only two people have ever got them to spawning. A lot of very good breeders have tried too.

thats no good. i wanted to breed my pair but seeing as they are considered difficult, i might try some tomato clowns or go back to clarkiis. good thing i saw this post, i may have been attempting to breed my pair for years.

are tommato clowns difficult to breed?

[JHardman]

Originally posted by lemmiwinks
thats no good. i wanted to breed my pair but seeing as they are considered difficult, i might try some tomato clowns or go back to clarkiis. good thing i saw this post, i may have been attempting to breed my pair for years.

are tommato clowns difficult to breed?

Nope. Tomatoes are regularly breed by the thousands every day.

[badman]

Anyone willing to ship a pair of latezonatus to Canada? I have never seen any in the Toronto area and the mail order companies here cannot get them either.

[JHardman]

Originally posted by badman
Anyone willing to ship a pair of latezonatus to Canada? I have never seen any in the Toronto area and the mail order companies here cannot get them either.

I don't know of anyone that regularly gets them. I really doubt your are going to get any with limiting yourself to CA companies only. I would think that some of the online places in the US would ship to CA, but I could be wrong. I would call Inland and The Marine Center.

Also, if you are really serious about getting them, then go to the source, AU. I am not familiar with the import laws/requirements in CA, but in the US it is not that big of a deal as long as you are bringing in less than 10 fish. Maybe the laws there are similar to the US.

There are people in this thread that are in AU and have access to the them.

Also keep in mind that they are temperate clownfish and require lower temps than most clowns. You are not going to be able to keep them in your reef tank.

HTH

[badman]

Thanks Jhardman for your great suggestions. I will try to contact a couple of the folks in Au. I have a cousin who lives in Perth so maybe someone can direct me to the source there and my cousin can do the shipping.

[JHardman]

Originally posted by badman
Thanks Jhardman for your great suggestions. I will try to contact a couple of the folks in Au. I have a cousin who lives in Perth so maybe someone can direct me to the source there and my cousin can do the shipping.

Just remember there are laws about importing... Do your research before you have some shipped. The last thing you want to do is have your fish held up in customs for a couple of days to clear up the paperwork.

[lemmiwinks]

are tomatoes harder to breed than clarkii / ocellarus / percella? or are these, all in all, just as easy to breed? i know that some pairs may never breed, some are realy easy and it depends on the specamine, but in generall...