Black spots on clownfish

[paullondon]

I purchased this wonderful ocellaris and I noticed some dark spots on it. Is that melanization or something serious I have to be worry about? The fish is eating awesome, playing, it's very active and I am waiting for the bubble green anemone for it.
I know... no one expected this but my kids named this fish: Nemo... a very rare and unheard name for a clownfish, right?

 

[ThRoewer]

Getting some melanistic spots is something common with ocellaris, especially if they live with corals instead of their usual anemones.
I would say that's what this is.

If you take a close look you should be able to tell if it is pigmentation or an infection with parasitic turbellarian worms (also called black ich). The latter would be smaller than what your fish has and create a slight bump.

Why did you only buy one? They are usually more interesting as a pair.

Also Nemo was a percula, not an ocellaris

 

[paullondon]

Getting some melanistic spots is something common with ocellaris, especially if they live with corals instead of their usual anemones.
I would say that's what this is.

If you take a close look you should be able to tell if it is pigmentation or an infection with parasitic turbellarian worms (also called black ich). The latter would be smaller than what your fish has and create a slight bump.

Why did you only buy one? They are usually more interesting as a pair.

Also Nemo was a percula, not an ocellaris

Thank you TH, that really helps. We love this little guy, we will buy another one once we have the green anemone... I like to take it easy and intorduce things one at a time in the aquarium since it's new, I want to give time for bacteria to adjust...
And LOL on the Nemo part... all the kids (and they were a lot) the moment they saw the fish exclaimed: NEMO IS HERE! ...so don't argue with them, percula or not this fish is Nemo LOL, plus is slightly smaller than 1"
Now, on a species point of view, are there visual characteristics to tell a percula apart from ocellaris and be 100% sure?

 

[ThRoewer]

Actually Nemo was a southern percula from the Great Barrier Reef . Those have only thin black borders around the white bars, so he looked very much like a ocellaris.

Northern percula from Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands have thicker black borders or are all black between the bars - see the ones in my avatar image (but not as black as the black Darwin ocellaris)

The universal differences are that percula have a lower hard rayed dorsal fin than ocellaris, have orange eyes instead of black and usually a overall brighter orange than ocellaris.

Though kids won't know the difference and ocellaris are much easier to get and keep and cheaper too.

With clownfish I would always buy a pair (or at least two) as making pairs from single bought specimen has it's risks. For once, you never know if you get the same variety (some here may not care about that, but I do), secondly, once acclimated the first one may not easily accept the newcomer and you may have some initial fighting until they get used to each other.
If you add another one be sure that he was not the largest (= dominant = female) in the sales tank and that you quarantine him well.