Question about color of Ocellaris Clowns

How often are Ocellaris clowns brown?  I hatched about 600 and although I have quite a few misbars, I only have one brown fish?  Is this a big deal, or something on the level of just another misbar?  Thanks for any comments...
 

Are you talking about what looks like a Darwin Ocellaris or the darker orange Ocellaris?

The one centered in the photo, facing away.

I never recall seeing anyone with an "orange Ocellaris" that dark. Can you get more pictures up close from the side and showing the eyes.

Who are the parents?

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

Who are the parents?

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

These are the parents.  As you can see, I put a bunch of babies in the parent tank today, but the female was not happy at all, and I thought she would kill all the babies.  I put a divider up to keep them apart.

Interesting. I've raised hundreds too and have never gotten one like that, nor have I gotten more than a handful of mis-bars from my regular A. ocellaris pair. While the pair appears to be regular A. ocellaris they might not be and have something else mixed in that is responsible for this?
 
I would not suggest placing juveniles back with the parents.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

As for adding the juveniles back in the tank...another rookie mistake on my part.  But I'm simply running out of tank space. 

I'd say keep that little guy! 

It looks like one or both of the parents might have some Darwin genes

I agree with Gina, the parents look almost like a slight "mocha clownfish", but that could just be the pic.

-Rob

mrcobscorals.com

They look like Bali Aquarich "percularis".See 10 rays in the dorsal fin

I still have the guy, and he seems to be getting a bit darker as time goes by.  I'm 99.99% sure the parents are wild caught and not planted out in the ocean.  They had 500 or so more babies (that lived) since, and this is still the only one that is dark.  Could be more in the future, but I'm taking a break right now.  Happy Holidays to all.
 
r/
mike 

Can we get an updated picture of him? Does he have the typical orange nose of a young Darwin?

Few shots from today:

 

 

very strange and cool would be cool to see what his offspring would look like 
does he change colour or stay the same?

Yes, this is a keeper.  Since the Ocellaris X Black Ocellaris cross yields "intermediate" results..that is one of the many signs indicative of possibly being separate species vs. a simple genetic variant.  THIS, the appearance of a single dark fish from among hundreds of offspring put off by a pair, could be something very different than a "surprise Darwin'...it could instead be something akin to a true melanistic mutation showing up.  Kinda like a single random Albino showing up.  Hey, this is how most mutations are discovered....breed enough fish and you may stumble on something new.

Of course, without knowing the true origin and parentage, the notion that these fish could have black ocellaris lineage is certainly possible, and while it's unlikely, this fish COULD represent a relative "throwback" to the black ocellaris ancestors.  This would simply be a chance occurance, the result of "enough" of the "black ocellaris" genetics happening to make it into the offspring to make it look outwardly more like a black ocellaris than a mixture (aka. Mocha).

So the questions include:

a) have any more turned up in subsequent batches.
b) who do you mate it to?

HMM.  Interesting fish. 

Female looks pretty dark to me! Male also appears a little darker. I get offspring that look like your parents from Darwin x snowflake pairing.

To offer input on Matt's second question, I'd say pair him back to his mother. As for the coloration of the parents, I've seen plenty of relatively dark standard ocellaris and I've also seen many adult ocellaris 'tan' under intense lighting. Also, it could have just been a dark picture of the parents. With Darwin coloration being only partially dominant, I can't see one full black offspring coming from even 2 half Darwin parents.

If each parent possess that trait why not?

On the coloration of the parents, they are the typical local deep water type.  There is the belief here that the clowns found in shallow water inside the reef, are not as bright and hardy as those found in 30-feet and deeper waters beyond the reef.  I have not studied this, but do know there are two different anemone hosts in the area, one is found close to shore, the other out past the reef.
 
This one dark fish is the only one so far, and I believe I'm up to about 800 or 900 baby clowns from the mother/father pair.  I'm taking a breather on raising more right now, so sadly I could be missing out on others.  Maybe next month I might raise a few more hatches.  I have another pair I was hoping would spawn, but no luck so far.
 
As for who I might mate the little guy with, I will most likely take Joe's suggestion, and go with the mother.  If anyone has advice as to how old the dark fish should be, and the process of removing the current male and replacing him with this little guy, I would appreciate it.  Thanks,
 
r/
mike

It's been proven for decades that the two traits, standard and Darwin black, are at least co dominant. I personally do not believe the two clowns to be the same species but that's a different topic. Anyway, both parents possessing the trait isn't enough to yield full black offspring when that trait is competing with an equally (arguably more) dominant trait. It just doesn't work that way. Once you mix black and white, you get gray, and mixing gray with more gray can yield neither black nor white ever again to put it simply.

So you are saying two lighter clowns wont produce a dark? Well that fish looks pretty dark to me .

That's not even close to what I said.

I said that two half *Darwin*clowns cannot produce a *Darwin* offspring. That's not how codominant genetics works. What is absolutely possible is that two seemingly normal fish produce a baby with two copies of some random recessive trait and whether this trait looks like something already existing or not has absolutely no bearing on what it is. Snowflakes are similar but that's a more dominant trait so it presents differently.

And that's all assuming the parents are half Darwin. We have no reason to think that. All anyone has to go on is the fact that some recessive gene for melanism popped up in this brood. Have you guys seen the color changing clownfish article by reefbuilders? They documented a similar trait but I don't remember the details.

So wouldn't both of these parents have to posses a recessive gene to get the dark fish?

Absolutely but not the Darwin black trait like it was speculated before. This would be something new. I'd be lying if I said this was a gold mine because...it looks like a Darwin black lol but that being said, it's not. Check this out:

http://reefbuilders.com/2...g-ocellaris-clownfish/

Hmmm interesting!