Ever heard of Nano Clownfish?

[Fonzi42]

I've had 2 clowns now for about a month. They were labeled as nano clowns. Are said to stay a lot smaller than usual clownfish. Any insight or anyone heard of this or has experience? I've heard of ORA selling stubbies but I don't think that's what they are... either way, enjoy the clowns very much. Happy reefing!!!

 

[Jack Eskay]

I believe it's a label for their size like large, medium, small, nano. I don't think it's anything special

 

[Koa]

It's just a size that they sell

 

[rockhead51]

Yep. Got one a couple months ago. He morphed into a "small" clownfish! [emoji3]

 

[Katrina71]

I was wondering the same thing. Glad you asked. We have an 8 gallon and no livestock yet. Still looking at options for what to get. We want a happy tank.

 

[4FordFamily]

Yup it's just a very small clownfish at the time of purchase.

 

[Darth Deeznuts]

Yup it's just a very small clownfish at the time of purchase.

There are actual nano clownfish that are bred to stay tiny. I'm a saltwater specialist at a fish store in Colorado and we sell them there. Just ordered two for myself today. We've had some of the nano clowns in one of our display tanks for well over a year and most of them are still under an inch in size and none are larger than an inch. Whether or not the clowns you bought are actual nanos remains to be seen but seeing they sold them to you as such there's a good chance they are in fact nano clownfish

 

[4FordFamily]

There are actual nano clownfish that are bred to stay tiny. I'm a saltwater specialist at a fish store in Colorado and we sell them there. Just ordered two for myself today. We've had some of the nano clowns in one of our display tanks for well over a year and most of them are still under an inch in size and none are larger than an inch. Whether or not the clowns you bought are actual nanos remains to be seen but seeing they sold them to you as such there's a good chance they are in fact nano clownfish

Those were probably just male clownfish, until a female is established they all stay small. The males always stay small and grow very slowly.

Nano clownfish to my knowledge do not exist and are a way to sell clownfish to people with small tanks rather than a real subspecies.

 

[GHsaltie]

Even if there is such a thing as a "nano" clownfish, I dunno that just seems like a perfect opportunity for dwarfism and other genetic defects to me.

 

[Darth Deeznuts]

Those were probably just male clownfish, until a female is established they all stay small. The males always stay small and grow very slowly.

Nano clownfish to my knowledge do not exist and are a way to sell clownfish to people with small tanks rather than a real subspecies.

There are nine of the clowns in the aquarium and they've spawned at least three times so they're not all males. However, I cannot one hundred percent verify that they are indeed bred nano clowns as I am not privy to the breeders information. I can only base my knowledge upon what I've been told by the store owners whom I'm very close to and what I've seen in person

 

[moseley75]

Does your store have a website?

 

[Darth Deeznuts]

http://www.poseidons.fish/index.html

We don't sell online, at least not yet. We've been open for less than two months so still doing a lot of dialing in. I'll press the owners tomorrow about the authenticity of nano clowns and post what I discover

 

[rockhead51]

According to my LFS, it just means small clowns. I bought one a few months ago; he is now the same size as my other, who was in the tank for 4 months before the new one...

 

[Darth Deeznuts]

Interesting. This is still such a mystery to me. Logic would dictate that they are indeed nothing more than baby clownfish. However, logic doesn't explain why the alleged nano clowns at our particular store haven't grown much if any over the last four months that I've been working there. And these aren't fish that have been rotating in and out of our retail tanks but rather clowns that have been in one of our display tanks for months now. Just yesterday we moved one little guy that was getting picked on out of said display tank and he is still barely three quarters of an inch long. There are three other clowns in that tank that are still as tiny as he is and as stated none of the other clowns in that tank are more than an inch long. Just stating facts as I know them. But to be fair the laws of physics don't seem to apply at our store anyway lol. I'll keep observing and updating.

 

[gioNVA]

I've bred 4 batches of picasso clownfish and in every batch, there's always about 2 or 3 that don't grow larger than an inch. I have about 3 of them in my 75g tank that are about 2 years old and are no larger than 3/4". I don't think they are going to get bigger than that.

 

[Darth Deeznuts]

Sounds about right and what I'm thinking now. They come from a breeder so undoubtedly just runts of the litter. But for the sake of argument I suppose they would in fact be considered "nano" clowns as many of them stay so small. Reconfirmed with the store owner today that we've had the little clowns for over a year and most of them are still under an inch in size. I have my own pair coming in tomorrow and can't wait to add them to my little Innovative Marine Nuvo Fusion 10!

 

[gioNVA]

Yup. Nothing wrong with them at all. I think they are awesome for nano tanks.

 

[1.0reef]

Genetic "nano" clownfish that stay small are called runts by most breeders. I remember reading through a Picasso breeding log where a two year adult female was 1 1/2 inches long, just a simple change in its genes I suppose.

 

[Darth Deeznuts]

Nano's!

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Those were probably just male clownfish, until a female is established they all stay small. The males always stay small and grow very slowly.

Nano clownfish to my knowledge do not exist and are a way to sell clownfish to people with small tanks rather than a real subspecies.

Clownfish are hermaphroditic. They are born with no sex and the most dominant one becomes a female as it matures, the next most dominant one becomes a male. All the rest stay non sexual until something happens to one or both of the mated pair. Then the most dominant fish, be it the male or one of the non sexual fish, becomes the female and if the male changed to female the second most dominant becomes the new male. In a large group of clownfish that are old enough, there will be a mated pair.