Black Ocellaris or Photon?

ClownWrangler · Mar 20, 2021

I got these at Petco about 3 months apart and have had them for almost a year now. It was the orange belly that caught my attention and is kind of rare on ones that are this big as it usually goes away on Black Ocellaris. It took a lot of persistence to find the first one a buddy. Petco just calls them “premium clowns” and they get annoyed if you ask what that means. These are by far my favorite clowns of the 5 pairs I have, but I can’t figure out if they are Black Ocellaris or Photons (White Darwin and Onyx Opercula hybrid). The pictures I find online vary quite a bit. I had trouble getting a good enough picture to count the spines in the dorsal fin. This I the best I could do with my phone camera. Can someone more knowledgeable identify these?

Also note my profile picture of the smaller male one with a Clarkii. They seemed like they wanted to pair until I introduced the other one and then things got strange and I had to separate them. It's a social experiment I may repeat one day with younger ones.

Jimbo7 · Mar 20, 2021

I think you're on the right track between black ocellaris and photon. The truth is, "designer" clowns have been bred like crazy over the last 5-8 years to try and meet the demand with less and less attention to maintaining the "brands" over time. At this point, if you aren't buying them direct from breeder who the heck knows what you've got.

Whatever you ended up with, they are both looking fat, happy and handsome. Definitely a cool looking pair!