![]() To date, the only fish we’ve witnessed laying eggs is a female that appears to be a hybrid between a Clarkii and an Ocellaris that was paired with a similar looking male. The hybrid fishes seem a little too pushy for the other fish we attempt to pair them with. However, when we attempt to pair a hybrid individual with an individual from either of the hybrid’s parent species the two fishes rarely get along well enough to form a pair bond. Fishes from the same hybrid cross pair up fairly easy and they seem to recognize each other as the same type of animal. We have encountered some difficulty incorporating these hybrid fishes into our breeding program. This should add fuel to the fire over the two questionable clownfish species, A. Hybrid pairs of Clownfish have been photographed in the wild but the notion that sperm remains viable after so much trauma and distance means that hybrids could be produced just by being in the same proximity. However, when you consider the concentration of sperm, following a spawning event, in the water flowing through our systems compared to the concentration that would be found in the ocean, combined with the swimming nature of sperm in a fluid environment, it may not be as unlikely as one might expect. It may seem nearly impossible for hybrids to occur like they have in our systems. Each of these hybrids are unique in appearance and tend to inherit more of their mother’s general appearance, but they all seem to grow faster than their purebred siblings, possibly as a result of hybrid vigor. Recently another apparent hybrid was found in an Ocellaris growout tank, it’s parentage has us stumped. Other unintended hybrid clownfish we’ve found include what appears to be a Gold Stripe Maroon and Tomato ( Amphiprion frenatus) hybrid, an Ocellaris and Clarkii ( Amphiprion clarkii) hybrid, and an Ocellaris and Tomato hybrid. These fish inherited more of a Gold Stripe Maroon appearance. In this case it appeared that the parentage was reversed, with the female being the Gold Stripe Maroon and the male an Ocellaris. Not long after the “Gold Stripe Ocellaris” was discovered, similar individuals were discovered in a Gold Stripe Maroon growout tank. Once the Gold Stripe’s sperm made it into the Ocellaris tank it had to beat the male Ocellaris’ sperm to the egg! Incredible! Ocellaris x Maroon Hybrid That possibility would seem far fetched even if the fish were in the same tank, but in order for the cross fertilization to occur, the sperm of the Gold Stripe Maroon had to travel through the plumbing and filtration system and then be pumped into the tank containing the spawning Ocellaris pair. In the case of the Ocellaris and Gold Stripe Maroon hybrid, we suspect that the sperm of a male Gold Stripe Maroon, who was spawning with his mate, fertilized the eggs of a female Ocellaris that was spawning at approximately the same time but in a different tank within the same system. Our broodstock systems house multiple pairs of fish spanning several different genera. What makes this a more likely scenario is the fact that Clownfish are demersal spawners who fertilize their eggs externally. ![]() While we wouldn’t dismiss these two possibilities entirely, it seems much more likely that these hybrids are the result of cross fertilization. Examples of this include humans born with a vestigial tail or dogs born with extra dewclaws. ![]() Another scenario is that these fish are a throwback that has been maintained in our clownfish gene pool and happened to pop up when gametes, from two individuals possessing these genes, produced a viable organism of an ancestral type. The first and least likely scenario is that these fish are some sort of chimera that is randomly produced and is a fast-track to a new species. There are several possible explanations for these unusual fish. Although this wasn’t the first time we had found truly unusual clownfish in our growout systems it was, and still is, an extremely uncommon occurrence. Interestingly, we did not have these two species paired up with one another in our facility. It appeared that these fish were hybrids and because they were mixed in a tank full of Ocellaris it was presumed that they originated from a male Gold Stripe Maroon Clownfish and a female Ocellaris Clownfish. Their overall appearance was Ocellaris-like however they seemed to exhibit traits from both Ocellaris and Maroon ( Premnas biaculeatus) clownfish. These fish were larger than their Ocellaris tankmates and exhibited unique coloration and shape. In the fall of 2009, while sorting through a tank of young Ocellaris clownfish ( Amphiprion ocellaris), several unusual fish were discovered by one of our hatchery technicians.
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