lfs guy "this is a... uh.. sebae or uh.. clarkii or uh etc Who knows how to ID these

[duncaholic]

lfs guy "this is a... uh.. sebae or uh.. clarkii or uh etc Who knows how to ID these

So I'm at my LFS and I'm trying to find an allardi clownfish mostly just because some of the pics I've seen of them look cool. The store I'm talking about is a clean medium sized store with both fish and corals ... strickly marine ... and the staff is very knowledgable, but they couldn't seem to agree on a reliable wat to tell clarkii, sebae and allardi clownfish apart. One even suggested that cinnamon clowns were easily mistaken within this group. IDK because even though I've looked at hundreds if not thousands of these fish in the stores and on-line, I still can't tell. Also, I'm under the impression that many of these fish are frequently mis-identified. So if someone could please tell me the most quantifiable way to distinguish these species, I would be very gratefull. Thanks in advance for your responses!!!

 

[thewetdog]

True sebaes are in the saddleback complex. Their body shape more closely resembles saddleback than clarkii. They have no stripe at the tail. They are also much more "flighty" or easily panicked than clarkii. A skittish fish and not common in pet stores. Allardis usually have thinner center stripes than clarkii. They're in the clarkii complex, so body shape is similar.

 

[dc]

[moved]


Probably get better answers here. Honestly half of them look the same to me. My friend who owns a pet store buys them in a group deal, so she's not even 100% of what kind she has sometimes.

 

[elegance coral]

It can be very difficult to tell an allardi from a clarkii. For one reason, there are many different variations of clarkii. So, it's not impossible for a clarkii to look very similar to an allardi, or any other member of the clarkii complex. Generally speaking, the first bar on an allardi's starts out very fat at the top, and becomes thinner as it reaches the lower portion of the fish. The center stripe is narrow. When young, they have a white line running along the top of the caudal fin. They typically only have two bars. When mature, the body just looks different. Kinda taller I guess. I'm not quite sure how to explain it though.

A. sebae and A. clarkii are fairly easy to tell apart. Like previously mentioned, the body shape is different. The most obvious difference may be the center stripe though. On sebae, the stripe curves backwards at the top. Maybe these pic's will help.

A. clarkii. The three bars are almost perfectly parallel.

The larger fish is A. sebae. The smaller is A. polymnus. Sebae has real fat bars, with no tail bar. I've heard of some having a third bar, but I've never seen it.

 

[duncaholic]

Thanks for the 411!!!