Best CB percula clowns?

[top shelf]

I still haven't added any clowns to my mag I got back in October. Havent really been in too big a hurry plus I've been waiting to try and find a pair of wc as their colors are better and they lack the deformities so many of the captive bred have.

If I decide to go with a captive bred pair in your guys opinions which breeder or breeders offer the best looking in terms of color and least amount of deformities? I'm still in no big hurry just looking at my options for when I do finally decide.

[D-Nak]

It sounds like you're looking for clowns free of any deformities. If that's the case, then I recommend getting a WC pair.

As a breeder myself, no matter how hard I try to breed deformity-free clowns, I still get them. I don't think any breeder can guarantee that their clowns are free from deformities. Many of the CB percs have small dorsal and pelvic fins to begin with, aside from other physical deformities.

If you do go with CB percs, definitely get a WYSIWYG pair.

[CoralsAddiction]

Bali Aquarich hands down produces better quality percula clowns out of all major hatcheries. Their lines seem to have longer dorsal and pelvic fins, and sometimes totally non-existent head and mouth deformities.
Getting good quality clowns is all about patience.
The clown below was bred by ORA and one of the best looking CB percs I have seen.

[Jamie1210]

Originally Posted by top shelf

I still haven't added any clowns to my mag I got back in October. Havent really been in too big a hurry plus I've been waiting to try and find a pair of wc as their colors are better and they lack the deformities so many of the captive bred have.



If I decide to go with a captive bred pair in your guys opinions which breeder or breeders offer the best looking in terms of color and least amount of deformities? I'm still in no big hurry just looking at my options for when I do finally decide.

A very high quality breeder that knows his stuff? One just responded to your thread i picked up a pair from Derek (D-Nak) a couple years ago for my husband's tank as a gift and they are all grown up now and looking beautiful!

Hey, Derek, you are wowing a bunch of so- cal-ers with your clowns! Reefers that come by are always impressed with them and ask where he got them! We get compliments often about how unique they are

Sent from my SM-J327T using Tapatalk

[Planetmacro]

Originally Posted by CoralsAddiction

Bali Aquarich hands down produces better quality percula clowns out of all major hatcheries. Their lines seem to have longer dorsal and pelvic fins, and sometimes totally non-existent head and mouth deformities.
Getting good quality clowns is all about patience.
The clown below was bred by ORA and one of the best looking CB percs I have seen.

That is the nicest CB percula I've seen. Do you still have the fish? Can you PM me more photos?

[top shelf]

Originally Posted by D-Nak

It sounds like you're looking for clowns free of any deformities. If that's the case, then I recommend getting a WC pair.

As a breeder myself, no matter how hard I try to breed deformity-free clowns, I still get them. I don't think any breeder can guarantee that their clowns are free from deformities. Many of the CB percs have small dorsal and pelvic fins to begin with, aside from other physical deformities.

If you do go with CB percs, definitely get a WYSIWYG pair.

Yes I would prefer a pair free of any deformities and have been on the lookout for them. Not being in any rush has been beneficial in this aspect.

The way I see CB clowns is your getting a trade off. Yes they will or may have some deformities but if that doesnt bother you then your getting a hardier fish better adapted to tank life. It seems some breeders do better then others at trying to limit this and take pride in what they do while others it's all about the next dollar. By the sounds of it you belong in the first group.

[top shelf]

Originally Posted by CoralsAddiction

Bali Aquarich hands down produces better quality percula clowns out of all major hatcheries. Their lines seem to have longer dorsal and pelvic fins, and sometimes totally non-existent head and mouth deformities.
Getting good quality clowns is all about patience.
The clown below was bred by ORA and one of the best looking CB percs I have seen.

This is the type of of response I was hoping for.

Bali does produce some of the nicest captive bred fish available so it would only stand to reason they would have some of the best clowns as well.

That is a gorgeous clown and like D-Nak stated a wysiwyg is definitely the way to go and worth the extra money. Thanks for sharing.

[top shelf]

Originally Posted by Jamie1210

A very high quality breeder that knows his stuff? One just responded to your thread i picked up a pair from Derek (D-Nak) a couple years ago for my husband's tank as a gift and they are all grown up now and looking beautiful!

Hey, Derek, you are wowing a bunch of so- cal-ers with your clowns! Reefers that come by are always impressed with them and ask where he got them! We get compliments often about how unique they are

Sent from my SM-J327T using Tapatalk

Sounds like you are very happy and his clowns are worth talking about. If I do decide to go with a CB pair if hes interested when the time comes I'll have to get in contact.

[CoralsAddiction]

Originally Posted by Planetmacro

That is the nicest CB percula I've seen. Do you still have the fish? Can you PM me more photos?

Not anymore, she got shipped to another RC member.

[D-Nak]

Originally Posted by CoralsAddiction

Bali Aquarich hands down produces better quality percula clowns out of all major hatcheries. Their lines seem to have longer dorsal and pelvic fins, and sometimes totally non-existent head and mouth deformities.
Getting good quality clowns is all about patience.
The clown below was bred by ORA and one of the best looking CB percs I have seen.

Up until a few years ago, I would've said Bali Aquarich ("BA") was definitely the best large scale breeder when it comes to clownfish. However, it sounds like politics and in-fighting with those importing the fish led to a decrease in quality (the rumor at the time was that we -- those in the U.S. -- were only receiving the lesser grade fish as a result of the fighting). I've seen photos of the BA fish that Live Aquaria was recently selling and all were not what I would consider high quality fish.

Originally Posted by Jamie1210

A very high quality breeder that knows his stuff? One just responded to your thread i picked up a pair from Derek (D-Nak) a couple years ago for my husband's tank as a gift and they are all grown up now and looking beautiful!

Hey, Derek, you are wowing a bunch of so- cal-ers with your clowns! Reefers that come by are always impressed with them and ask where he got them! We get compliments often about how unique they are

Sent from my SM-J327T using Tapatalk

Thanks Jamie! I'm glad that you and your husband are happy with the fish. After rebuilding my system, I'm planning to breed again, but at a very small scale. My goal is to produce less fish, all at a higher quality.

Originally Posted by top shelf

Yes I would prefer a pair free of any deformities and have been on the lookout for them. Not being in any rush has been beneficial in this aspect.

The way I see CB clowns is your getting a trade off. Yes they will or may have some deformities but if that doesnt bother you then your getting a hardier fish better adapted to tank life. It seems some breeders do better then others at trying to limit this and take pride in what they do while others it's all about the next dollar. By the sounds of it you belong in the first group.

The challenge with a wild pair is the QT process. Many arrive with ailments and need to be qt-ed using praziquantel, formalin/ParaGuard, and/or other treatments and oftentimes they die in the process. CB clowns are typically disease free, but as we've already mentioned, aren't perfect. I agree that many hobbyists focus on color and pattern and overlook most deformities and that's unfortunate because breeders hold onto fish that should've been culled.

[LargeAngels]

Has anyone played around with adding different vitamins to the parents food and/or fry food?

I too am getting back slowly into breeding.

[Planetmacro]

With most WC species I treat with Paraguard as soon as I get them home for at least 3 days. This usually stops brook dead in its tracks. If the fish come down with ick, then I use copper. I've lost very few WC clowns this way. To get them eating I feed BBS. Even full grown clowns eat BBS immediately. I have about a 90% survival rate with new WC fish. I also try to get them within two days of arrival at the importer. WC clowns do not survive long at the wholesalers.

[MarinaP]

Originally Posted by Planetmacro

With most WC species I treat with Paraguard as soon as I get them home for at least 3 days. This usually stops brook dead in its tracks. If the fish come down with ick, then I use copper. I've lost very few WC clowns this way. To get them eating I feed BBS. Even full grown clowns eat BBS immediately. I have about a 90% survival rate with new WC fish. I also try to get them within two days of arrival at the importer. WC clowns do not survive long at the wholesalers.

What do you loose the 10% to? Brook?

[phender]

Originally Posted by LargeAngels

Has anyone played around with adding different vitamins to the parents food and/or fry food?

I too am getting back slowly into breeding.

IMHO I think you should go old school. When I was breeding ocellaris in the 90's and percs and sandaracinos ten years later, I had very few deformities. I started with live rotifers and then newly hatched (within an hour) San Francisco strain brine shrimp for a week and then weaned them onto, originally Vibra-Gro, a food produced by Harbor Branch Institute that contained astaxanthin. When that was sold to Red Sea I started using Cyclop-eeze, dried and frozen along with "Golden Pearls" from Brine Shrimp Direct. I really think a lot of the "hatchery feeds" that people use are used by hatcheries because it is cheap and good enough for fish grown for food, but not if you are looking for fish with perfect conformation. I think a food with asaxanthin is a must. I notice that a lot of people are eliminating the brine shrimp step. I'm not sure that is a good thing. I never had any of the '"sudden death" problems that I heard some people attributed to brine shrimp.

The stores I sold to didn't actually believe my fish were CB at first because all the CB ocellaris they had seen were pale orange/brown while mine were vibrant deep orange. The asaxanthin obviously helped with that too.

I also changed my water everyday and kept my larval cultures a little bit green with living phytoplankton.

I don't claim to be an expert, just sharing my experience. Stepping up my water changes and using high quality food pretty much eliminated my deformities and mis-bars. I guess now with designer clowns mis-bars aren't so much of an issue, but when I was raising ocellaris, nobody wanted mis-bars. The babies needed to look wild caught.

[pfan151]

I’d try to find a LFS that have brought in a big group and then just pick the best of what they have in person. Even with good pics online it’s easy to miss something. I have a store near me that he at least a hundred in stock recently. They were Occs though not percs. Wild type percs may be harder to find locally.

Have you looked around to see if anyone is breeding them in your area?

[top shelf]

Originally Posted by Planetmacro

With most WC species I treat with Paraguard as soon as I get them home for at least 3 days. This usually stops brook dead in its tracks. If the fish come down with ick, then I use copper. I've lost very few WC clowns this way. To get them eating I feed BBS. Even full grown clowns eat BBS immediately. I have about a 90% survival rate with new WC fish. I also try to get them within two days of arrival at the importer. WC clowns do not survive long at the wholesalers.

Thanks for sharing your qt protocol. I know after locating them this will be the second most challenging part. Nice to know what others are doing that works and gets their clowns healthy and eating.

[top shelf]

Originally Posted by pfan151

I’d try to find a LFS that have brought in a big group and then just pick the best of what they have in person. Even with good pics online it’s easy to miss something. I have a store near me that he at least a hundred in stock recently. They were Occs though not percs. Wild type percs may be harder to find locally.

Have you looked around to see if anyone is breeding them in your area?

Unfortunately I only have one lfs within an acceptable driving range (45min) the rest are atleast 2-3hrs away. I'm not usually the most impressed with them so they are a last resort. I did order my nem through them though and it came in healthy enough.

I live in a fairly rural part of Pennsylvania near the NY boarder and I dont know of many reefers even in the area. Just the ones that work at the lfs and have tanks.

[Planetmacro]

Originally Posted by MarinaP

What do you loose the 10% to? Brook?

I lose fish to mouth lesions and burrowing worms and sometimes fish waste away from unknown illness. Some fish are still collected with cyanide and the signs don't show up right away.

[MarinaP]

Originally Posted by Planetmacro

I lose fish to mouth lesions and burrowing worms and sometimes fish waste away from unknown illness. Some fish are still collected with cyanide and the signs don't show up right away.

I only had success treating mouth lesions with copper.