With the loss of C-Quest hatcheries, many of their signature designer clownfish lines went through a period of relatively scarcity, but the Wide Bar Gladiator Ocellaris Clownfish was perhaps the most overlooked and forgotten form out of the C-Quest lines. This week, Soren Hansen and Sea & Reef Aquaculture announced the return of retail availability on this unique and subtle designer variant of Ocellaris Clownfish. While we’ve taken to referring to the “Gladiator” / “Fancy White” / “DaVinci” trio to describe the fish with single-dose Wyoming White genetics, a quick discussion with Soren bolstered my suspicions that the Wide Bar Gladiator Ocellaris Clownfish has little if anything to do with Wyoming White genetics, and is in fact something distinct.
“The reason we call them Wide Bar Gladiator is because that is the original name that C-Quest sold them as,” wrote Hansen. “The fact that C-Quest added “Gladiator” to the name I think has more to do with the fact that they have the Spartan helmet look and not because there is DaVinci/Fancy White/Gladiator genes in this fish.”
Hansen went on to muse about the origins of the Wide Band variation. “Bill Addison was an excellent fish breeder. He might have spotted the wide barring from a mutation of their own captive bred ocellaris line or from a wild collected specimen and bred it to a stable morph. I am not sure if we will ever find the true origin to the Wide Bar Gladiator, but I hope we will.”
If there is any doubt that this wide-barred Ocellaris is unique, one look at the photos above clearly shows the difference in appearance. Visit the S&R Wide Bar Gladiator Ocellaris Clownfish product page for more information on this almost-lost designer clownfish. Thanks to Sea & Reef for providing us with the images above.
