How common are yellow clownfish? (ocellaris & percula) (pics)

[smartwater101]

This percula has been at my LFS for weeks. I was told he is just pale in color, though looks bright yellow. Is this common? Will it eventually become more orange as it grows?

 

[ernieq]

My breeding female is a yellowish tint. When I bought her over 7 years ago, I was told it was because of where she came from. How big are these guys?

 

[smartwater101]

These are less than 1" long.

I can't seem to find much info about why/how this occurs.

 

[ernieq]

If they are that young and were tank raised, it's more probable that it was bad nutrition. I think I remember reading that if they are not given someting with betacarotine, they get that pale color. They will probably get their bright orange as they grow if given a proper diet.

 

[BonsaiNut]

One person's "yellow" clown is another person's cull.

Getting captive-bred clowns to have dark, rich colors is difficult. Getting them to look pale and washed-out (like these clowns) as easy.

Sorry, but if those were my clowns they would have never made it out of the house.

 

[seamonkey84]

It has to do with the food and nutreince while they are still developing, Ora clowns tend to be that dull color, but all SA clowns I've recieved all have a vibrant deep orange

 

[phender]

Astaxanthin is the chemical that gives you the deep oranges in fish. Betacarotine doesn't quite get the job done. It was a boon for those who raised clowns in the early 90's because it was the only way you could get your CB babies to have the colors of WC.

A quick internet search tells me that astaxanthin has become the new "miracle" supplement for humans which has probably driven up the price and decreased availability. Hatcheries that don't use it can save a buck or two, but the colors in their clowns will be washed out and pale. Sometimes you can perk their color up by feeding a diet high in astaxanthin (Formula 1 frozen and Cyclo-eeze come to mind), but not always.

 

[smartwater101]

I thought it was pretty unique. That's too bad the color is from poor nutrition.

 

[seamonkey84]

On the same note, I love the coloration of the standard ocellaris clowns from Sustainable Aquatics; but I noticed that their snowflake clowns don't have that same deep orange, almost closer to the duller ORA clowns, just not as bad. Is that more genetics vs diet? I've also got two different batches of SA snowflakes, and one is the duller orange while the other is closer to the standard nice orange.

 

[smartwater101]

So another yellow clown popped up at the LFS and this time I couldn't resist.

The color was more consistent. But unfortunately it only lived a little more than a week. (you can see it had a damaged fin as well.) I'll be sticking to happy/healthy clowns from now on.