Amphiprion chrysagyrus

ThRoewer · Sep 2, 2020

Last Saturday I found some nice melanistic Amphiprion chrysagyrus from the Philippines.

I will have to split them up into 2 pairs as the largest one and the larger of the small have kind of teamed up and now harass the other two.

adtravels · Sep 2, 2020

Clarks......
Taxonomy Note: This species was treated as a synonym of Amphiprion clarkii in Allen 1991 and subsequent references. The elevation to full species status used in this classification should be considered provisional until a full taxonomic revision is published.

ThRoewer · Sep 2, 2020

adtravels said:
Clarks......
Taxonomy Note: This species was treated as a synonym of Amphiprion clarkii in Allen 1991 and subsequent references. The elevation to full species status used in this classification should be considered provisional until a full taxonomic revision is published.

Well, recent genetic research has shown that Allen was wrong to lump all those species in with A. clarkii (which is the species found at Sri Lanka and India).

What is currently lumped together under A. clarkii are likely up to 16 different species.

Allen was also wrong in regards to the Premnas species (there are at least 3!) which are very clearly members of Amphiprion and closely related to the percula and ocellaris species. Premnas as a genus is bound to be invalidated as result of recent genetic studies.

flampton · Sep 2, 2020

ThRoewer said:
Well, recent genetic research has shown that Allen was wrong to lump all those species in with A. clarkii (which is the species found at Sri Lanka and India).

What is currently lumped together under A. clarkii are likely up to 16 different species.

Allen was also wrong in regards to the Premnas species (there are at least 3!) which are very clearly members of Amphiprion and closely related to the percula and ocellaris species. Premnas as a genus is bound to be invalidated as result of recent genetic studies.

Where is chrysagyrus on this?

adtravels · Sep 2, 2020

Taxonomy;Vomit

ThRoewer · Sep 3, 2020

flampton said:
Where is chrysagyrus on this?

Unfortunately it's not.
But this shows that the different "clarkii localities" are genetically farther from each other than many recognized species. A. tricinctus, as the sole other currently recognized species in the clarkii lot, is closer to the PNG "Black" (which is likely Caroline Islands/Palau "Clarkii") than the latter one is to the PNG "Clarkii" (which is likely Amphiprion papuensis Macleay 1883).

And if you search Google Scholar for "Amphiprion clakii" you find a good number of Japanese research done on their local "clarkii" species (which are either Amphiprion japonicus Temminck & Schlegel, 1843, Amphiprion snyderi Ishikawa 1904, or Amphiprion chrysargyrus Richardson, 1846). While those papers are not questioning Allen's (incorrect) reclassification, those research papers highlight that those fish are different from each other and other "clarkii". For once, A. japonicus and A. chrysargyrus display a sexual dichromatism that is not found in other "clarkii". And A. japonicus and A. snyderi are rather sub-tropical species and not tropical like the rest.

from https://amphiprionology.wordpress.com/2016/08/23/maps-the-amphiprion-clarkii-group/

I have kept a number of different "clarkii" species and currently have aside from the A. chrysargyrus also a pair of A. milii. Aside from coloration they are also different in morphology and have quite different behaviors. And they may also have different anemone preferences.

From a conservation and also breeding perspective it is important to not lump them all together but rather identify species and local color forms correctly.