The holy grail of clownfish breeding used to be an all white morph but since this has been achieved in three species already, breeders have had to set their sights higher, and for an even more exotic color. A true blue clownfish is still just a twinkle in clownfish breeders’ eyes but every year we see just a little more of this unusual blue trait in an ever increasing number of domesticated clownfish.
Before you go thinking that clownfish should be orange, black and white and that’s it, just remember that there is at least one species, the blue stripe clownfish, which has a great deal of natural blue coloring in its bars. So it’s not a big stretch to imagine that this pigment could be selectively bred for in a range of clownfish species and strains, although fixing this trait has been hit & miss.
Today’s images come to us from a Thai aquarist named Nattawut Chotsuwan and it shows one of the more blue-heavy clownfish specimens we have seen to date. As in other blueish clownfish we’ve seen before, the blue colroation is most prominent where the white bars are outlined in black color.
This specimen shows a great deal of blue coloration but it still doesn’t yet represent even half of the area of the white bars. However, this blue trait is very strong in this clownfish and it would come as no surprise if this specimen was selected for further line breeding to amplify the blue coloration. However, as long as the ‘blue edging’ trait has been around it’ll probably be a good number of generations until we see a strain of clownfish that can truly be called blue.
