Black Saddle Clownfish, Amphiprion polymnus, from Oceans Reefs and Aquariums

black saddle misbarred clownfish, Amphiprion polymnus from ORA

The Black Saddle Clownfish is a much rarer form of Amphiprion polymnus, the same species as the common saddle back clownfish. Unlike the more commonly available brown saddle back clownfish, the black saddle back clownfish is blacker and the second bar actually forms a bar that reaches across the entire body instead of forming the namesake saddle shaped bar. Ironically enough, ORA is also offering misbarred black saddle clownfish which have a second bar which closely resembles the brown saddleback form. If nothing else you can distinguish the black saddle form from the ‘tradional’ brown saddle back by the third bar/tail stripe which is usually only present in the youngest brown saddle back clownfish. Apparently the black saddle clownfish is considered one of the toughest clownfish to breed and it has taken ORA 10 years to get the whole process to produce quality offspring. Initial releases of the black saddle clownfish will be primarily of the misbarred variety but ORA will certainly work to produce more fully barred black saddle clownfish.