ORA Picasso Pair

[ezcompany]

hello everyone
after getting bored of corals, i decided to venture in the fishy zone.
please let me know what you think of this pair:

all comments are welcome, critical or compliments. they are juveniles, i would say still sexless, around 1 inch or so. i will try to provide them with their own tank as they are very cute little buggers.

some questions: what is the best PROVEN food to promote onyx coloration? i have heard ORA Glo helps, but it looks like regular pellets to me. i am currently feeding them my own mix. will beta carotene promote black coloration or only red/orange?

what is the best anemone for them to host in? RBTA? i want something that won't go sexual on me but is relatively hardy.

the white patterns are there to stay or do they have a chance of developing?

 

[Toddrtrex]

If I am not mistaken, picassos are ocellaris, so they won't get any black, or very little.

Onxy clowns are percula.

But, very nice pair you have there.

 

[ezcompany]

these are true percs for sure, i do believe ORA is doing true perc picassos now. i don't know if they actually breed them though.

 

[triggerfish1976]

They are true percs. Some of ORA's Picassos will develop black between the white stripes and some will not. It also varies on the time that it can take to develop the black.

 

[gemini aquarius(t)]

nice clowns when did you get them? and did i hear you say you were bored with corals? have you SEEN your tank its Sooooo cool how could you be bored

 

[Haddonisreef]

I just bought a pair about 3 weeks ago and they have started to get blk along the white pattern. The white is there to stay and i feed cyclopeez, mysis, brine,blood worms and im proably foregetting some thing. I think the little side burnsthat they have are so cool! Where did you order them from?

 

[Haddonisreef]

O ya they come from a pair of wild cought percs and only a small % of the off spring will have the picasso markings.

 

[ezcompany]

haha thanks for the compliments gemini!
i got my clowns from Reef A Palooza charlie

 

[basser1]

Hey there ez.... this is basser1 ( N-R.com ). Nice looking pair! I feed mine Rods Food. It has everything in it and my fish, and corals, love it. I also feed ORAGlo pellets and they eat it as well. I think Helfrich's Chick fed her picassos these pellets, and if I can get mine to look like hers, I'll be happy!

 

[phender]

The ORA Glo is a very good food for promoting red color. I won't do much for the black though.

 

[55semireef]

what is the best anemone for them to host in? RBTA? i want something that won't go sexual on me but is relatively hardy

A. Percula do not naturally host Entacmaea Quadricolor (BTA) so your chances of getting your Picasso clowns to host right away may not be as great as you would like. That's not to say they won't host. Most Percs do host but it depends on the individual/pair with their timing. Some take as little as a day to host while others can go longer than 16 months.

I would try a RBTA though if you don't already have it. Great color anemone and probably won't go sexual on you. Most do binary fission with their reproduction.

 

[Helfrichs Chic]

Phender I dissagree. EZ I sent you PM on NR. I got a pair of Picassos, in my AV, and my friends got a pair as well, from same brood, came in together at LFS all from ORA, and all from an order I placed. I fed mine the ORA pellet food daily, along with vita chem soaked foods, once a week, and my picassos turned black very quickly. My friends however only fed frozens and no ORA pellets. Their picassos have little to no black, and now after I told them about the ORA food, their clowns are turning black... quickly. I dont know what the reason for this is, but as you can see mine are definatly dark. I am still wondering why there are so few "extreme" picassos lately. I REALLY am going nuts trying to find a replacement for Phoenix.

As far as hosting were talking about captive raised clowns lol. Mine have/do host my powerhead, a carpet anemone, frilly mushroom and various Zoas, sometimes rics. IMO ORAs fish host pretty quick.

 

[ezcompany]

i really wish mine had more white after seeing all these awesome picassos on the site... can someone find me one

Also, what is the best anemone for true percs? carpets or rbtas?

 

[phender]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10599242#post10599242 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Helfrich’s Chic
Phender I dissagree..... Their picassos have little to no black, and now after I told them about the ORA food, their clowns are turning black... quickly.

I hope I am wrong. I was going off the original VibraGro. Your clowns are certainly beautiful.

Is it just me or does it seem odd that the ORA picassos are all very light orange and have no black. Why don't they feed their own food to the babies and give them a little better color? I'm not sure about the black, but I know it will make the orange darker.

 

[triggerfish1976]

It also could be just coincidence that the black started to fill in around the time that they started to feed the ORA food. I have read numerous posts where people are reporting that there Picassos take in some cases months to start filling in. I do not feed my pair ORA Glo and the black and orange/red coloration started to develop within a few weeks after they were first introduced so I think it is a combination more than just a healthy diet.

 

[Helfrichs Chic]

Hummm, I wonder if mine is ORA glo at all. I know its ORa, but may not be the GLO. Will look when I get home. Here is a time frame of my picassos turning. Seems like my female is getting a little more black but not much more than in my Av. EZ I will do my best for you. I have 2 LFS that know me well, and I always get ORA stuff in, I think there stuff is "uber" nice. <--- Not quite sure what uber is anways LOL. Here are the pics. MAN I miss my male, Phoenix. He was the coolest fish ever. :sad1:

 

[ezcompany]

fantastic looking couple....too bad the male is gone...i hope you find a nice mate for her.
right now i'm feeding my fish ORA GLO, Ocean Nutrition Prime Reef flakes, Formula 1, Formula 2 (they hate this), and my own custom mix of fish food (whole shrimp, squid, cyclops (fw), cyclopeeze, nori sheets, liquid life coral food 2, vitachem, selcon, etc.)

 

[GSMguy]

nice fish

you could try some extra cyclopeze that is great for coloration.

 

[Helfrichs Chic]

Sounds like you have a great food mix for them. I dont even spoil mine that much! Make sure you take pics to document the color change, its really interesting, and since so many people have questions about their colors, would be cool to compare to my pics.

 

[ezcompany]

helfrich, does your female host anything? do you still feed it ora glo? i have a hard time feeding ora glo as it is still too big for them to swallow.