Clownfish turning black

[MMreef]

A couple of months back I adopted an older orange ocellaris clown and a week later I purchased a juvenile orange ocellaris to keep it company in my biocube. I just noticed recently that the juvenile clown has started shifting colors fairly dramatically. He was a bright orange to begin with and now he's about 50/50 orange black and his top fin on one side is completely white! I'll post a couple of pictures, he's very hard to get a good side picture of, but you can definitely see the color changes.

 

[TheZachariah]

I am making an assumption here based off what I have seen with my black and white clownfish that I got as a juvenile. At first he had an orange face and a slight amount of orange behind the first white stripe. As hes matured, the black has covered more and more of him, with just the tip of his face orange now. So long story short, perhaps you got a black and white juvenile but just an educated guess

 

[MMreef]

It almost looks like he was bred from different species. He was 100% bright orange and white when I brought him home. I have a pair of black occys in my 120 that I've had for around 7 years. They both at one point had a small amount of orange around their mouths but as far as starting out with absolutely no black and turning, they did nothing like that. I've not experienced anything like this with clowns. He seems happy and he gets fed a variety of frozen mysis, brine and pellets.

It's hard to get a good picture of him and he looks, in the picture, to be a black occy, but I assure you the top half of him still has a very small orange tint that has just started slowly fading black, the bottom is still a bright orange, one side of his top fin is completely white and the other side(use to be orange) is now turning black as well. It's incredibly neat to watch him change colors like this. I'm mostly curious just to see if anybody else has had some similar happen and what they wound up looking like when mature.

 

[Timothy Butler]

They are juvenile clownfish changing colors as many species do as they grow up you can now buy designer clownfish whatever color you want $1,300 that's a lot for a fish but no one else will have it it's just changing its juvenile Furniture colors

 

[Timothy Butler]

They are juvenile clownfish changing colors as many species do as they grow up you can now buy designer clownfish whatever color you want $1,300 that's a lot for a fish but no one else will have it it's just changing its juvenile Furniture colors

Nothing to be real concerned about if you are go back to the dealer and see if they are turning to ther color

 

[TheZachariah]

;SmuggrinThanks for the info mmreef. I guess you might have lucked out w a rarer occy for quite the price atleast

 

[Timothy Butler]

;SmuggrinThanks for the info mmreef. I guess you might have lucked out w a rarer occy for quite the price atleast

What price are you talking about I've spent thousands tens of thousands in equipment corals and vertebrates live rock I don't know where you're coming up with this price thing I'm giving you my 17 years experience you can laugh and you can make fun of me and you can call me names it does not hurt me it makes you look foolish Google my facts you'll find them true I always listen to somebody with an open mind and then take it to Google and find the facts if you can't do this you're not capable of having a thriving reef tank so make fun of me does not hurt me a bit it amuses me a lot that you put so much effort into this name-calling be mature I am Seventeen years and two beautiful coral tanks to show for my 17 years and I do self Coral I have split budded or fragmented from protected species I gained in 2000 I am one of only a few people in Michigan that have these corals laugh at me laugh at my tank it doesn't hurt me it just makes you look like you can't support the facts or the misinformation you tried to give

 

[TheZachariah]

woooooaaahhh..... dude you have misunderstood me and really really taken it the wrong way. I am completey aware of the price of this hobby. I was saying that if mmreef purchased a plain ocellaris and it is unexpectedly changing to a different color pattern than expected, then it could be a pretty cool fish for the $15-20 a regular ocellaris typically costs...

 

[TheZachariah]

In fact, you have insulted me now and this is based off your far stretch assumptions man... i in no way even made a reference to you and you exploded... i was just responding to mmreefs message to me in his thread about his fish...
I'm going to drop some life lessons of my own now haha.. in most cases it is setting yourself up to be teased if you claim your earliest days of infancy as experience in anything but a lack of bowel control ;Joyful;Joyful;Joyful

 

[Timothy Butler]

Like angelfish they start out with a different color and pattern growing to maturity they lose that pattern an Take On Me much more elegant designs on the sides of the fish you would never know there a lot of angelfish to do this but angelfish can be dangerous to your reef tank they picked at small curls with their long snouts I tried angelfish got very poor results I am moved to clowns fish and to an enemies they are starting two make a house they are swimming in and out around and about I think this will be my first breathable clownfish.

 

[Timothy Butler]

woooooaaahhh..... dude you have misunderstood me and really really taken it the wrong way. I am completey aware of the price of this hobby. I was saying that if mmreef purchased a plain ocellaris and it is unexpectedly changing to a different color pattern than expected, then it could be a pretty cool fish for the $15-20 a regular ocellaris typically costs... [/Q year 2000 I was it's not challenging your tank so don't take it personally have so many people on this site just clueless date put their specimens in a plastic cup the heat them up they die when I go to vacation in California or North Carolina or be very proud of what you do most people's fish are goldfish

 

[Luna]

So is there a way to know if a baby clown is gonna change color or is it just a waiting game?

 

[easternreefer]

Like angelfish they start out with a different color and pattern growing to maturity they lose that pattern an Take On Me much more elegant designs on the sides of the fish you would never know there a lot of angelfish to do this but angelfish can be dangerous to your reef tank they picked at small curls with their long snouts I tried angelfish got very poor results I am moved to clowns fish and to an enemies they are starting two make a house they are swimming in and out around and about I think this will be my first breathable clownfish.

Punctuation! I almost passed out reading your two messages..

 

[swensos]

Punctuation! I almost passed out reading your two messages..

You've heard that a shark will die if it stops swimming? The same thing will happen to Timmy here if he stops posting or pauses to put a period.

And on the original question: it could be an onyx or photon clownfish, but I'm not sure how much black they have when they are juveniles. Maybe someone who breeds them can chime in.

 

[ngoodermuth]

I don't know all of the designer colors that are available now (I was at my LFS last night and saw a legit "Blacker Ice Clown" [emoji849][emoji15]) but, most juvis are mostly orange and change as they mature. Without knowing the lineage of the breeding pair/parents, it's hard to say how much more "black" he will develop, but regardless it's kind of cool

 

[MMreef]

I'm wondering if this guy got mixed in, somehow, with a batch of regular orange occy clowns. I asked them at the lfs, the rest of the clowns are all bright orange and no black whatsoever, so far. They told me the clowns came from a local breeder. This was the day I put him in the tank. I put a picture up when I first got him and another just last night. They are probably about 6 weeks apart.

 

[ShaneTweedz]

Well whatever mixup happened you have got one nice looking clown!

 

[TheZachariah]

Yeah that would be an awesome mistake fkr you man! Those new breeds are beautiful. And expensive :0

 

[kass03]

Many years ago I bought a pair of small clowns at the LFS that were locally bred. They were orange. As they grew I noticed they were turning dark/black. It turns out they were Onyx clowns. I had talked to the breeder who was in our reef club. My female is a lot more black than the male so even though they were from the same parents the color can differ. They are around 13 years old and spawn all the time.
I also recently purchased a pair of frozen mocha frostbite clown juveniles and they are also getting more black on their tale and fins.
Clownfish can change color from juvi's to adult. You might have an Onyx there but not an expensive fancy breed because it would have the traits of say a frostbite, Picasso etc.

 

[MMreef]

Yea is color transition seemed to happen fairly quickly. His top half has pretty much stopped changing colors and has stayed a light black with a very small orange hue to it, his bottom has two large orange patches on his belly and right before his back fin. After some searching around he resembles what I have read to be a "mocha" clown, but I'm by no means an expert. He's a very neat looking little clown. It'll be fun watching him mature and seeing if his colors continue to change or perhaps develop any other coloration traits. Just wanted to say thanks for all the replies guys! This is a hobby that I am always having such a blast with, despite all the maintenance.