wild caught black osc

I understand they're collected near Darwin, gonna be there in about two years.......
Anyone know exactly where?
 
dman, no idea, but if you have a good relationship with your lfs, i would ask them to give you some contacts in aussie :)

i just got a pair of wild caught black osc. from my lfs. he said there wc from assuie. i had him call the distributor to confirm. he feels confident they are bec of the rest of the shipment is all from australia. so far what ive noticed is there body shape looks wider and there mouths /lips more pronounced. also there all black. no orange mouths etc.

they definetly do not look like oras black osc. but maybe im just seeing things :)

anyway i just wanted to see if anyone was aware if some wc black osc are getting into the us market.
 
Hmmmmmm, There is a huge supply of captive raised black ocellaris being sent out of australia recently (past 6 months). The main collector of Wild Black Ocellaris died in a collecting accident a year or more ago, and the wild black ocellaris have been even rarer since.

I dont know exactly where they come from but am told darwin harbor, problem is that these big crocadile things swim around up there too, and they have a taste for people!! bit of an impediment to gettign a few black ocellaris. And for the life of me i still dont understand the facination with them, they arent better coloured, better striped or different coloured to tank raised fish. Either that or you must have some very bad genetic stock over in the US.

Christian
 
you must have some very bad genetic stock over in the US.

Most of the fish here are from either TMC or ORA. In both cases most of them just don't look right, body confirmation is all screwed up. They are too "long and skinny" :rolleyes: What most people try to do is mix pairs from these two sources.
 
wc black occelaris is hard for me to believe. It is probably just from a breeder in aust. like clownfish75 said, the main collector overthere died a few years back by being attacked by the people eating saltwater crocodiles. afaik no one has had the guts to go back. With the amount of tr fish i dont think the demand for wc fish would be worth risking your life...Not saying i wouldnt do it for myself. But not on a daily basis lol.
 
Most of the B&Ws will darken once they are settled for some time and are in a stable tank. If they are stressed out they will fade color and the orange will be more dominant. That is why they look so bad at the LFS or other crowded conditions.
 
Morgman, ime the orange once gone wont come back. Do you have a link or something that supports that? all black occ's start out with orange on them, and it fades with maturity. I have never seen a all black occelaris get orange back on it, My pair have gone through lots of so called stressful things and no sign of orange have re appeared.
Also, at the lfs, they appear orange because 99% of the fish sold in lfs are young and havent matured yet....
 
Does anyone have a good pic of this slendering of cultured fish in the US.

I have 1 pair of wild and had another pair (died) of wild stock and many pairs of cultured fish of various stock. I can only difference i can see when comparing wild to captive is the forward protrusion of the middle bar is huge and this doesnt form as well on captive stock, but this is not genetic i dont think.

the pair of wild that died also faided and the male developed orange fin rays in his pelvic fins.

The next batch of babies of the wild stock i will also look for rate of miss barrign versus a pair of captive breeders. Both to hatch at similar times.

Christian
 
Black does not neccessarily come with maturity. I have a batch of black ocellaris which are of the same age. Half of them are with a friend of mine and they have all turned very black. The other half which are with me are paler black (more like translucent black, kind of hard to describe) while the orange can still be seen. I've been feeding mine blended seafood daily but somehow they just don't turn as black as the half my friend is holding on to. He feeds them infrequently though. Could it be an issue with water quality? I heard high phosphate levels could impede colouration in fish but unsure if this is just a myth.
 
I have some suspicions regarding colouration on these guys. I've noticed that when my juvvies are hungry they are very black, but after I've fed them they look a little brownish. I dropped the level of astaxanthin in half and they're not nearly as brown anymore. Also, I think the level of lighting is important as well. Brighter tank, darker colours.
 
Hmm..in that case the lighting part might be partially true. I keep them under ambient room light. However, I've got some of them under strong ATI T5s but they still don't turn black. I've heard that a dark background could also cause them to turn black.

Yes Christian, awesome quality fish. 15 fish in each bag and none died during transit. :D
 
I got a pair of W/C black Juvies they are just starting to color up even more and getting really nice size.

They are settling in well in my livingroom i gave them a 30 cube to themselves and i have them with a bta and they get direct sunlight about 7-8 hours a day and the room is mostly lit by the day cycle as it gets dark outside it does inside so i would like to say they are on a good lighting schedule.

They seem to be eating well i feed flake / cyclopeez and a frozen mush.

I wish mine were a little more voracious when eating but i tell you i cannot stick my hand in the tank at all.

as soon as my fingers hit the water they are at the top attacking and im trying to get them to hand feed as i heard this helps them feel more secure but my pittbulls arent the case.

Either way i think lighting has a good deal to do beacause mine had some orange when i got them and they went into my 300 with T5 lighting and now they arent under the T5 for now until i can get my hood bulit they are getting a little darker nonetheless.

Sorry for my rambling but im hoping to get these guys eating alot more as im feeding about 3 - 4 times a day not alot but trying for saturation.

o yeah did i mention i cannot keep these clowns with any other fish. they have already chased 3 damsels out of the 300 and in the 30 they just about murdered a bar goby and a little goby.
 
tks everyone for your input.

keefsama. its good to know wc occs are coming into the country to get more genetic diversity.

i will take pics later tonight of them.

david, i 100% agree with your observa on the current supply in the us on black osc.

clownfish, thank you for that info.i did not know that. based on this information, mine are very likey captive bred from aussie and not wc.

its ok i just wanted a pair that was diff than what has been circulating around this us, with the common deformities that david mentioned.
 
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