White stripe on ocellaris turning black

[SKremk]

I just came home after being out of town all week and one of the white stripes on one of my ORA stubby ocellaris clowns (I have a pair) is turning black. I actually first noticed it last week, but wasn't sure if I was imagining it or not, but after being gone a week, it's clear it's turning black. Only the rear stripe is actually changing, and the other clown has not changed at all. Both clowns appear otherwise healthy. Has anyone seen this before?

Tank has been up over a year, and I've had the fish for 10 months or so. I haven't added anything recently. Sorry for the blurry photo, I just came home and took a quick shot.


Here's what the clown normally looks like.

And here's what it looks like today.

 

[dudley moray]

i could be a sign of maturity tomatoe clowns lose a stripe when they mature

 

[ExtremeClownfish]

wow ive never seen anything like that before. thats weird

 

[NCSUsalt]

^^ oscellaris don't lose stripes like the tomatoes.

 

[WaffleWalffle22]

I've seen that before. It happened to an ocellaris pair I had. It is fine and will go away. It won't harm the fish at all.

 

[SKremk]

Thanks Waffle. Were you able to figure out what the cause was?

 

[kerusso316]

Probably the clown is hosting something new that is causing the color change.

 

[SKremk]

Kerusso, the clowns don't host anything and they haven't exhibited any new behavior recently.

 

[WDLV]

Are you certain that it has a pure blood line? I have seen ocellaris with pretty dark borders, but it's also possible that yours is a "percu-laris" hybrid. It's got pretty odd barring (tail bar in particular) for an ocellaris.

 

[SKremk]

Walt, they are stubby ocellaris clowns from ORA, so they should (ie they were sold as such) be a pure blood line. The stubbies look a little odd because they are missing some vertebrae and are thus 'stubbier' than normal occelaris clowns. Here's a blurb from ORA's website:

ORAâ"žÂ¢ markets hatchery certified pairs of this species, as well as a melanistic (black) variant from Australia. Sometimes abnormal traits occur in culture that look different but are otherwise healthy fish. These include "mis-bars" with unusual stripe patterns and "stubbies" that are lacking the normal number of vertebrate in the spine. ORAâ"žÂ¢ offers all of these A. ocellaris variations.

 

[WDLV]

Hehe. Thanks for the history lesson. There is a guy locally that was culling them years before ORA was marketing them.

Either way, it's nice coloration.