Just picked up a Proven Breeding Pair of Amphiprion Melanopus

[JustinGr]

I traveled to Inland Aquatics today and dropped the hammer on a proven spawning pair of Amphiprion Melanopus. They actually had a clutch in the tank when I got them.
They have the blue band, and the male has an odd feature on the top of his head where the band is partially broken giving the impression he has horns!

They are in quarantine and their isolated 40 breeder is being set up now. I'll post pics soon.

 

[Winwood]

I would love to see some pics! Do you plan on raising the young?

 

[JustinGr]

Yes, I plan on raising them. I have 4 pairs of clowns in different systems. I am slowly building a colony of various breeders.

I have a pair of Platinum that are bonded, but Juv, pair of Picasso, Darwin, and the Melanopus.

 

[Winwood]

Congrats on the pickup. I really like some of the different melanopus locality types such as those coming from the coral sea.

 

[JustinGr]

Here are some poor quality cell phone pics. They are in a sump of the coral only reef tank. No other fish in the tank, but don't want to have to catch them out of there once the new tank for them is complete. The female is about 3.5" long, she has the band stop at the top of her head leaving a gap between the two stripes. The photos don't do it justice, but the stripes are a pale blue.

The male is about 2" long and he has the odd design at the top of his head. It looks as if he has horns!

They are skiddish, and to be expected, they have been at Inland for years in a back tank that was packed with grape caulerpa, so I purchased 10 pounds of it out of the same tank, and it is in the new tank I am setting up for them.

I used a mature HOB CPR refugium that was on another reef tank that I am going to take apart and used 20 gallons water from my primary reef, and 10 from my other clown tanks and 10 fresh to setup the new tank. I'll let it sit for a few days with the massive caulerpa ball that is packed with worms, stars and various other critters to make sure I don't get a ammonia spike form any die off.

Male

Female