Pair of Amphiprion thiellei

Thielli and leukocranos are natural occurring hybrids and never should have been described as a species. Overzealous ichthyologist need to publish papers to keep the grant money flowing.
 
its not simple hybrids...........

its na evolutionary process called Reticulate Evolution............

its happens in front of our eyes..........

for exemple A. leucokranos breed and produce offsprings with the same apparence...............and this is a sign of a true species............that was formed by two ancestor lineages.........


WIKI :" Reticulate evolution can happen between lineages separated only for a short time, for example through hybrid speciation in a species complex."
 
its not simple hybrids...........

its na evolutionary process called Reticulate Evolution............

its happens in front of our eyes..........

for exemple A. leucokranos breed and produce offsprings with the same apparence...............and this is a sign of a true species............that was formed by two ancestor lineages.........


WIKI :" Reticulate evolution can happen between lineages separated only for a short time, for example through hybrid speciation in a species complex."

Except that the two batches of babies of the leucokranos pair that spawned at the Stephen Burch Aquarium ranged in appearance from looking like straight chrysopterus to straight sandaracinos and everything in-between. Some even looked like tomato clowns, so not exactly true breeding at all.
Plus, the lineage between chrysopterus and sandaracinos aren't very close at all according to recent DNA analysis.
 
Even my wc male looks like an idiot with half headbar. They produced mostly leuc-looking babies, though.

 
That is the hermaphroditic one. Not sure if it is a hybrid on top of that lol. S(he) ate a huge bristtle worm today, and not looking good. I got the digested mess off of her, but she is all shrunk up. Is this normal? A little bit freaked out here...
 
Its difficult to say that its simple hybrids or a good species........

simple hybrids is in the begining of the evolutionary process........

and a good species will produce a uniform bath......

but I think that A. leucokranos and A. thiellei are in the middle of this process........

some individuals are simple hybrids........

but we also can see some perfect bonnets off springs........

the speciation process is not fully completed........
 
I believe it was in one of the early Advanced Aquarist paper copies years ago. I had it at one time but can't seem to find it now.
 
Thank You Phil..........where I can find this to see...........I would love to see the report..........

Unfortunately, the articles were in "Aquarium Frontiers" which never had much of an online presence before it went under. Here is something I wrote a few years back that has most of the info.

[Fernando Nostratpour at the Stephen Birch Aquarium in La Jolla, CA. Raised 9 clutches from a white bonnet pair starting in 1995. Unfortunately, they only were able to get less than a 10% survival rate. (Granted there weren't a lot of people raising clowns in those days, but their survival rates for melanopus were 40% and 80% for maroons.) There was a person on this board from the East Coast that tried to raised a couple clutches and then sold all his pairs. His success rate was similar.
Fernando wrote two articles in "Aquarium Frontiers" magazine in the mid to late 90's. In one of them he noted that of the 32 babies that survived, 28% were leucokranos type, 12.5% were chrysopterus type, 15% were sandaracinos type, 9% were perideraion type (had a cheek bar and a dorsal stripe) and 34% were intermediate in their markings. I was lucky enough to see them in person, and those in the "intermediate" category were in general, not an attractive lot. I know that several of the leucokranos type babies were sent to the Waikiki Aquarium. I believe they may still have one on display.]

Here are a couple discussions that reference a few other articles, some of which may be online.

In one of the discussions I wrote that leucokranos DNA has been sequenced in a study by Gerald Allan and Jimmy O'Donnell and it presented exactly like you would expect for a chrys. /sandaricinos hybrid. I spoke directly to Jimmy at the time and he said the study hadn't yet be published. That was 4 years ago. I think Jimmy goes professionally as James L. O'Donnell or JL O'Donnell.

You seem to have a knack for searching the internet for info, so I will let you take a shot at finding some good stuff.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1946584

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2147292
 
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