Tomato or Cinnamon Clownfish

[Finsky]

I have had a breeding pair of clownfish for 5 1/2 years in my six year old mixed reef tank. I have tried to decide whether they are Tomato clownfish which is what the person who traded them to me said they were or Cinnamon clownfish. One picture is when I had just put them in the tank.

 

[garygb]

Looks like a cinnamon to me (A. melanopus).

 

[Fishboy42]

It looks like you have a pair of tomato clowns (Amphiprion frenatus). The key to identifying them is the color of the pelvic fins (it's more easily seen in the picture of them as a younger pair)--they are red in tomato clowns and black in melanopus (cinnamon) clowns. They can darken with age, even in tomatos, but they are fully jet-black in cinnamon clowns. Of course with red pelvic fins they could be A. barberi or A. rubrocinctus, but they are less common species (collected from Fiji and Northwestern Australia, respectively). The head bars to remind me of the Fiji "cinnamon" as it was called before it was recently described. If you know collection location, you can narrow down the species type. Hope this helps!

Matt C.

 

[SDguy]

I think melanopus usually have black pelvic fins, at least to some extent. I'd be more likely to guess frenatus.

 

[reefbooger]

+1 Tomato

 

[Winwood]

I would say frenatus as well because of their pelvic fin coloration and the size disparity. Typically male frenatus stay smaller than their mates, where as melanopus clowns (cinnamon) typically remain similar in size.

 

[Finsky]

Thank you for this information.

I have kept Bubble Tip Anemones (one green and one red which both split into two) on the left end of the tank and a large green on the right side for them to host in for most of the time in my tank. They get along with all my other fish even though the large female travels back and forth to all anemones although she sleeps in the big green where the male sleeps in one of the reds on the left end. They are a major part of the aquarium with their anemone hosting and breeding.

 

[Finsky]

I have looked at other pictures from the pair when youngish in 2006 about two to three years of age. They are definitely Tomato clownfish with the male much smaller eight years later and they are still spawning.