Amphiprion thiellei and A. leucokranos are two beautiful natural clownfish hybrids

Clownfishes are pretty promiscuous as far as fishes go, and many are capable of forming hybrids. There are only two genera of anemone fish, with the monotypic Premnas playing host to the pugnacious maroon clownfish, and the rest being placed in…

ORA shows off their first captive bred leucokranos clownfish

Amphiprion leucokranos is a coveted hybrid-species of clownfish which is only very rarely available, usually from the Solomon Islands. But if you made it to MACNA 2014 this weekend you could have seen a display with half a dozen of…

Hybrid Reef Fish and Corals Are Much More Common Than We Knew

For over a decade we’ve been fascinated by hybrid marine life of all kinds and especially the ways that our beloved clownfish, angelfish, and many others turn out when their genetics get recombined in unexpected ways. While hybrid creatures may…

Ventralis Anthias, Observations and Experiences on their Captive Care

I was always under the impression that ventralis anthias (Pseudanthias ventralis) were hard to keep, as they are often listed as “expert only”. I have always loved the looks of this fish and was a Holy Grail fish to me…

Where the heck did this Maroonellaris clownfish come from?

A Maroonellaris is a hybrid clownfish cross between a maroon clownfish and an ocellaris clownfish. We generally don’t encourage hybridization in any kind of fish, but something about the genetic portmanteau of a big ole maroon clownfish and a slender…

Heading to the Solomon Islands to find all the corals & fish

There’s something utterly surreal about being in Fiji as we write this, not at the final destination, but having a layover to even more exotic corals and genera coral reef diversity. We are headed to Honiara, Solomon Islands with a small…

ORA commercializes the Rare White Bonnet Clownfish

ORA finally debuted a project that they’ve been working on for a year (well, actually a decade if you count the total time they’ve pursued this clownfish variety). We finally have commercially available captive-bred F1 Amphiprion leucokranos, the White Bonnet…

A Recap of the MBI Workshop 2014

Hosted by the Marinelife Aquarium Society of Michigan (MASM) and the Marine Breeding Initiative (MBI), and held July 19, 2014 at Cranbrook Institute of Science in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, this was the fifth workshop they have offered dealing solely with…

White bonnet tomato clownfish has got us scratching our heads

The white bonnet anemonefish, Amphiprion leucokranos, is generally regarded to be a hybrid cross between a pink skunk and a bluestripe clownfish. So imagine out surprise when we stumbled across a video that purportedly shows what appears to be a White bonnet…

Another PNG program looks to establish sustainable fisheries

Clownfish breeding is big business here in the US, however in areas like Papua New Guinea where harvesting from the reef itself is the norm, it is an entirely new ballgame. A recent project between Australian and Papua New Guinea…