clowfish breeding pair

[chelseabrook]

Hi, i want to get two clownfish and hopefully have them breed.

Is it possible or common to have two types like a black or with an orange?
or a black and orange stripe with a regular orange clown breed?

Or do they need to be the same kind?

Also when im buying mine how do i know male from female or if they have a sex yet?

[ernieq]

If you are referring to the ocellaris clowns (the ones that look like nemo), they have 2 color varieties in the wild. The black and white ones (people call them black ocellaris or darwins) and the normal orange colored ones with the white stripes. They will pair off and breed with no issues. There is also another species that are known as True Perculas and they look very close to the aforementioned variety. They are known to pair off with the ocellaris variety as well. To complicate things further there are also what are known as "designer" clowns which are basically man cultured colored varieties and they tend to fetch higher prices. If you look at other people's posts, you will see them called snowflakes, picassos, black onyx, platinum, black ice, tangerine albinos, to name a few. There are new color morphs coming out from time to time. If you want to see the different varieties you can go here:

http://www.orafarm.com/products/fish/clowns/

As far as sexing them, it is pretty difficult, although if you see two of them hanging together all the time one of them being bigger, you will most likely have a pair there with the female being the largest. Otherwise, if you just buy them when they are juveniles, say 1.5 to 2 inches, you should be able to grow a pair from them.

[chelseabrook]

so from what you are saying will all clowns pretty much interbreed then? or no? black occelaris with orange occelaris and/or perculas with occelaris?

[ernieq]

Yes. Ocellaris are all one species so no matter their variation, they will mate. It's like different breeds of dogs. A. Percula is known to form hybrids with A. Ocellaris, though it may be a bit rarer, it does happen frequently.

[chelseabrook]

ok i have heard from several people that they have done it with a black and an orange etc.

but the RC moderator wrote on my "fish list" im wanting to add to my tank that two different clownfish kinds (orange and black) cant interbreed. so i was very confused.