Several pairs of Whitemargin Anemonefish, Amphiprion cf. latifasciatus, have arrived in recent Madagascan shipments to the UK. Being offered in mated pairs these rare imports immediately catch the eye, firstly because of the huge, nearly six-inch-long females and secondly because of their wider-than-usual white stripes. Amphiprion latifasciatus is one of the largest clownfish species and itself a rare import. Males have a distinct forktail (like our pictured fish,) only in other latifasciatus the dorsal fin and tail are all yellow and the white bands carry a bluish hue. In these Madagascan clowns however the middle white stripe is much wider than standard latifasciatus and white coloration is also visible in the lower part of the dorsal fin, and prominent in the tail fins.
The super size, super wide bars, and white fin highlights of these wild-caught clownfish add to their visual appeal, but at a taxonomy level it makes their “latifasciatus” species assignment questionable, hence some authors applying “cf,” or “compares to,” to both the Whitemargin and Yellowmargin Madagascar clownfish until more work can be done on them. These Whitemargin Anemonefish and the true Amphiprion latifasciatus are restricted to a 200-mile stretch of coastline off Northeast Madagascar, whereas another, different, Yellowmargin “latifasciatus,” also occurs off Southwest Madagascar. All are placed within the bicinctus group of Western Indian Ocean Amphiprion with more species probably yet to be described.
Photographs of Whitemargin habitats show the species hosted by several genera of anemones although literature suggests Stichodactyla mertensii. We have only seen these available so far from one store – Finest Aquatics, which imported them via the importer World Fauna. They’re priced at £650/$730 per pair.
