My new Amphiprion epigrammata

[ThRoewer]

40 gallon would be great for a pair, I have always had zero issues pairing GSM's despite their reputation for being difficult to pair.

I found that pairing them is easy because male and female can be distinguished by their coloration.
Keeping them alive, on the other hand, seems to be more difficult. My female died. She got stringy poo, stopped eating, and was dead 2 days later. She didn't show any other sign of illness and none of the other fish in the QT have any issues - aside from the Starki chasing each other until they are exhausted.

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[Planetmacro]

Too bad about your female. You are correct about dimorphism in the Premnas complex. Males are lighter in color regardless of size.

 

[ocellaris123]

I have seen older males get as dark as females. Sorry about the loss, must have been the females time to go. I have found GSM's to be pretty hardy, but newly caught individuals are prone to brook.

Are you planning on repairing the male?

 

[ThRoewer]

Yes, I try to get another female.
Going by her receding head bar this female wasn't the youngest anymore.

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[Overboard]

I found that pairing them is easy because male and female can be distinguished by their coloration.
Keeping them alive, on the other hand, seems to be more difficult. My female died. She got stringy poo, stopped eating, and was dead 2 days later. She didn't show any other sign of illness and none of the other fish in the QT have any issues - aside from the Starki chasing each other until they are exhausted.

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So sorry to hear that! Beautiful fish. The male sounds healthy so maybe another female will come available. Good luck!

 

[ThRoewer]

Couldn't find another female so I picked up another male, about half the size of the one I already had. I will try to pair them once the new one is done with QT.

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[ocellaris123]

Couldn't find another female so I picked up another male, about half the size of the one I already had. I will try to pair them once the new one is done with QT.

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Nice! any pics of the new male?

 

[CoralsAddiction]

What do you find attractive about gold bars?
I find myself partial to PNG, SI clowns and thus I’d always pick white bar maroons or Lightning maroons if I’m not keeping percula.

 

[ThRoewer]

Nice! any pics of the new male?

Best picture I could take so far...

This guy is tiny. I chose to go with a smaller male because the surviving male of the initial pair had already darkened a lot and started to have the coloration of a female. Plus, large females seem to be in short supply at the moment.

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[ThRoewer]

What do you find attractive about gold bars?
I find myself partial to PNG, SI clowns and thus I'd always pick white bar maroons or Lightning maroons if I'm not keeping percula.

For once, they have wider bars that are less likely to fade away quickly.
And then, gold bars are less aggressive towards other fish.
Finally, they are a different species (Amphiprion epigrammata) even if not officially recognized and not in the correct genus at the moment (all genetic studies have shown that they clearly belong with Amphiprion.)

As for Lightning Maroons, there have been only 2 wild-caught specimens collected at PNG. So you can only get captive-bred which are rarely free of deformities. And even if free of deformities, unless they would come straight from Matt Peterson I wouldn't touch any Lightnings as they may have been crossed with Maroons from different localities (= potentially different species).

 

[ocellaris123]

Is the new male wild caught? If your ever in the Southern California area an LFS I go to frequently always has a good selection of GSM maroons, ranging from small to large. My female was red when I first got her, but has darkened up considerably in the two months that I have had her so far.

 

[OrionN]

My LFS have two gold bar maroons WC. I am thinking of getting them and pair them up. I like the color of Gold bar better than white.

 

[ocellaris123]

My LFS have two gold bar maroons WC. I am thinking of getting them and pair them up. I like the color of Gold bar better than white.

I agree about gold bar being prettier than white bar

Here are my pair


Female has turned darker a few months later, The male darkened a bit also

 

[marc price]

I will try, but not necessarily BTAs.
I've seen a study that indicates that they also accept H. magnifica as a host.

I could have sworn I have seen a picture pair of wild white stripe maroons hosting in a ritteri.

Damselfishes & Anemonefishes Scott W. Michael pp234-235 "Prmnas biaculeatus, Spinecheek Anemonefish: Unusual occurrence of what appears to be two large females nesting among the tentacles of Heteractis magnifica, the Magnificent Sea Anemone in Lembeh Strait, Indonesia."

IMO, the anemone in the photo on page 235 hosting the two white stripe maroons looks like Entacmaea quadricolor.

Broodstock development, breeding, embryonic development and larviculture of spine-cheek anemonefish, Premnas biaculeatus (Bloch, 1790)

"Introduction
The maroon clown Premnas biaculeatus, the sole
member in genus Premnas is commonly known as spine-
cheek anemone fish. Adult fishes have golden yellow bands
and all young ones possess white bands. Males are smaller
and brighter red than females with brilliant white stripes.
This reef fish is in high demand in the marine ornamental
fish trade due to their most striking colouration, and
proclivity to live in association with tentacle anemone
Heteractis magnifica and bulb tipped or purple base sea
anemone Entacmaea quadricolor (Allen, 1972, 1980).
In India, this species is available only in the coral reef
ecosystem of Andaman and Nicobar islands (Talwar, 1990;
Madhu and Madhu, 2000). "

Old source, I don't find the above credible information, not WRT H. magnifica hosting Premnas biaculeatus in the wild.

 

[CoralsAddiction]

To me it's not a matter of one having "œbetter colors" than the other. It's a region thing. I don't think white bars are "œprettier". It's about what I associate with what comes from that region. PNG and SI have always had crazy and rare aberrant percula and Maroon clowns; you can add Leucokranos to that list too. That's why I would pick a white bar maroon. Gold bars to me are about equal in looks as white bars.
The monster pair I had, acquired from Aquatic Collection in Hayward.
I sent the pair to a friend but transit ended up taking 10 days due to currier mistake. They died, unfortunately.

 

[CoralsAddiction]

I also believe the Maroon clown shown below is a hybrid clown. Picture taken at a fish store in Sacramento area.

 

[marc price]

I could have sworn I have seen a picture pair of wild white stripe maroons hosting in a ritteri.

Damselfishes & Anemonefishes Scott W. Michael pp234-235 "Prmnas biaculeatus, Spinecheek Anemonefish: Unusual occurrence of what appears to be two large females nesting among the tentacles of Heteractis magnifica, the Magnificent Sea Anemone in Lembeh Strait, Indonesia."

IMO, the anemone in the photo on page 235 hosting the two white stripe maroons looks like Entacmaea quadricolor.

For the sake of educating, the following is the photo of the anemone/clownfish in question on p.235 of Scott Michael's book which I think is actually E. quadricolor -

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[CoralsAddiction]

That's a BTA. The tentacles on the bottom of the picture make it abundantly clear.

 

[marc price]

^ Yes CoralsAdiction, I couldn't agree more.

 

[ThRoewer]

What they accept as hosts in the wild is one thing and what in captivity another. I would think that they would accept a magnifica if no BTA is present.

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