Black Clown Fish?

[herpsandreefs]

I just saw a picture of what looked like a black clownfish, could someone give me the scientific name?
Thanks
Chris

 

[Anonymous]

Impossible to say without a pic.
There are tank raised black Amphiprion perculas and there are A. ocellaris that are black which are primarily found in the area of Darwin Australia. If I recall someone in Australia was tank raising these also. Also there are melanistic variations of A. chrysogaster, A. clarkii, A. tricinctus and A. sebae which are black.

Regards,
David Mohr

 

[EmilyB]

And a black variant of A. polymus. I had a pair of those once...... 8O :evil:

 

[Wheeldog63]

Impossible to say without a pic.
There are tank raised black Amphiprion perculas and there are A. ocellaris that are black which are primarily found in the area of Darwin Australia. If I recall someone in Australia was tank raising these also.

Accually the tank raised variety of the "Black Percula" are A. Ocellaris, even though many sites such as live aquaria and marinedepot live list them as A. Percula(confused yet ) There are Darwin Ocellaris, I believe, but have not heard much about them, the black Ocellaris' on the market out there are captive raised by I believe ORA and a local in England. Now, there are 'Black' varieties of A. Percula that are found around the Soloman Islands, they still have orange on their heads/tails/fins and some of the body. There are also what are known as 'Onyx' percula that are completly black from the first bar back to the third bar. Both the latter A. Perculas come into the country in spurts and usually run in the $75-100 range, where as the black A. Ocellaris can be found in the $25-40 range. Bare in mind these are both rough estimates.

Now, to complecate things even more:

And a black variant of A. polymus. I had a pair of those once......

Emily is exactly correct, the other common Black Clown is the black varient of A. Polymus. To confuse everyone MANY times these are labeled as "Black Percula" on the wholesalers list and if the seller doesn't know anythign about them will label them as the same.

Also there are melanistic variations of A. chrysogaster, A. clarkii, A. tricinctus and A. sebae which are black.

This is also true, but these varieties are a little more rare.

AND FINALLY, there are the black clowns in the A. latezonatus and the A. mccllochi which both have 'blackish' bodies but are VERY rare in the hobby, expecially the mccllochi, if you EVER see one of these let me know, or any of the clownfish nuts over on RC. :lol:

Now that there is more info there then anyone needs to know about black clowns, the pictures of these gusy can all be found at RC here: Clownfishes
except the Polymus, which can be found at:
Black Polymus

~Kelly

 

[herpsandreefs]

Yep it was defiantly A. ocellaris. The ones I saw were jet black with only the white strips, kinda looked like a orca whale or something must have been good specimens. Awesome looking fish, changed my view on clowns, might want a pair now. Thanks for the help.
Chris