Wild Caught Clownfish
- Thread starter iClown
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CoralsAddiction
Active member
Blue Zoo Aquatics is the best online retailer of wild clownfish. iBluewater is second.
ThRoewer
New member
iBluewater is probably the best source if you have special request or are looking for rare species, but be prepared to pay a hefty price for it.
BlueZoo is definitely a good choice too, but they just ship you what they have listed as in stock and won't go out and hunt it down for you.
BlueZoo is definitely a good choice too, but they just ship you what they have listed as in stock and won't go out and hunt it down for you.
CoralsAddiction
Active member
BZA routinely stocks wild clowns at half the price of iBluewater. Sometimes for 1/3rd of the price. Even for the rarest of clowns you have a better shot at getting them from BZA then IBW. White Bonnet, Latz, etc come up for sale more often than anywhere else and many of them are WYSIWYG.
BZA just sold two Madagascar clowns for under $400 each, IBW has a sold listing for $2,500 for two.
What am I missing? LOL
https://bluezooaquatics.com/productdetailcc.asp?did=11&cid=365&pid=24117
travis9791
New member
2,500 for a pair of fish. Ouch. I have A hard time dropping 50. I guess I'm in the wrong line of buisness.
CoralsAddiction
Active member
That's how it is with most of us. But serious collectors and breeders sometimes don't mind paying the premium. I love the hobby but talking to a few hardcore hobbyists made me realize they were on another level.
ThRoewer
New member
They may never get those rare species.
CoralsAddiction
Active member
What kind of clowns are you interested in? Some never show up at local fish stores even if they are available through whole seller. You rarely see someone walk in and ask for $300+ fish. Fish stores don't want to tie their money up in rare species that might take 6+ months to sell. In some cases they never sell.
But for a regular true perc or ocellaris, you pay $15-$25 each plus shipping. So not too bad if you want instant gratification
ThRoewer
New member
Some people have just too much money. I can remember when even rare fish hardly cost more than $1000 - and that was already outrageous.
Even breeder size pairs of clowns like latifasciatus or latezonatus were only a few hundred and not in the thousands.
Shure there is often a high shipping cost involved from places like Mauritius, Madagascar or Australia, but a large part is also rip-off.
What kind of clowns are you interested in? Some never show up at local fish stores even if they are available through whole seller. You rarely see someone walk in and ask for $300+ fish. Fish stores don't want to tie their money up in rare species that might take 6+ months to sell. In some cases they never sell.
But for a regular true perc or ocellaris, you pay $15-$25 each plus shipping. So not too bad if you want instant gratification
I'm looking specifically for WILD clownfish. Colors and physical form are superior, in my opinion, to the captive bred. I looked on ibluewater and they were EXPENSIVE! It is hard to find the wild ones at the lfs these days but I'll wait. I don't like throwing whatever in my tank lol
CoralsAddiction
Active member
Yes, I realize this. What species of clowns? Ocellaris, percula, tomato, maroon....?? Some are easier to find than others.
Simple Ocellaris
ThRoewer
New member
They should be easy to find. I actually like the ones with a lot of black from the Philippines (found in gigantea or mertensii carpet anemones).
I would just give BlueZoo a shot - they have them in stock right now.
Just don't forget to give them a formalin dip right after acclimatization, before they go into the quarantine tank. This should be SOP with all fish, but especially with clownfish, regardless if wild or captive bred.
CoralsAddiction
Active member
If you get one tiny and one small from BZA, the cost including shipping would be $75. Lots of people spend twice as much on deformed designer clowns. So $75 is not that bad if you are looking for a nice wild caught Ocellaris pair.
ThRoewer
New member
I would just order also some corals, shrimp and maybe an anemone for the clowns as well to get free shipping. BZ's free shipping threshold is with $140 a good bit lower than LA's with $175.
They are usually better with shrimp as they can sex many of those that have male and female. Some are even sometimes offered in pairs - something you don't see at LA (besides the "bonded pairs" of Lysmata shrimp on DD, which is really a bad joke).
They are usually better with shrimp as they can sex many of those that have male and female. Some are even sometimes offered in pairs - something you don't see at LA (besides the "bonded pairs" of Lysmata shrimp on DD, which is really a bad joke).
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks "most" of the captive bred looks deformed.
$75 for a pair of baby clowns is too much. Especially when I can't see specifically which one I'm going to get (wysiwyg). I'll keep an eye out, but thanks everyone.
CoralsAddiction
Active member
Here's one of my wild Occy clowns with a little bit of extra black
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