Seychelles Clownfish (Amphiprion Fuscocaudatus)

[KMSReefer]

A pair of these came in with an order from Africa at one of my LFS a few weeks back and I picked them up because I had never seen them before and knew they weren't saddlebacks like the label said. I was wondering how common they are and if anyone else is keeping them. From what I've found online they are hosted by the Merten's sea anemone in the wild which I don't have space for but they've taken to my elegance coral nicely.

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

I'd be careful with them hosting the elegance coral, I've heard clowns will kill elegances and I've personally lost a large goniopora and two torch corals from my clowns hosting them.

 

[KMSReefer]

I was worried the first time it happened but this will have been the second pair of clowns that the elegance has hosted, the previous pair being ocellaris. In the time that it has hosted clowns, the elegance has tripled in size and is doing very well. Being an Indo-Pacific elegance it is supposed to be a difficult coral but in all honesty I find it to be the easiest to keep coral in my tank other than the fact that I have to constantly rearrange the sandbed to give it more space. I guess I lucked out with it.

 

[Ron Popeil]

those are most likely amphiprion allardi...very common from african shipments and often mislabled as chrysogaster or clarkii. they grow up to be gorgeous clownfish!

amphiprion fuscocaudatus are from an area that cant be collected from, from what i remember.

i would like to see some more pictures though!

 

[adtravels]

agreed allardi..

 

[KMSReefer]

I originally assumed that as well but after digging a bit deeper, A. Allardi is described as having a solid white tail and these clownfish do not have white tails. The A. Fuscocaudatus is the only species I found that fits the tail coloration. Looking into their distribution area, most of the population is in the Aldabra world heritage site and is protected but is does also occur outside of the protected area in the Seychelles.

For comparison here are some photos.

A. Allardi

My clownfish

I am open to other suggestions. I am just curious what they are.

 

[Ron Popeil]

you are correct, adult A. allardi do have white tails. But as juveniles, their tails look EXACTLY like your fish.

here is another example of a juvenile allardi:

 

[adtravels]

My LFS has two pairs of juvenile allardi in at the moment, they look like to image posted above. In fact, the larger fish in one of the pairs has a slight white edge to the bottom of the caudal fin suggesting a transition to a fully white adult tail. Nice fish!

 

[KMSReefer]

Good to know! Everything I found regarding it's description indicated that there are no colour varients. When I get a chance I am going to have to take a look at the fin rays to confirm the species.