Black ocellaris
 

A few years ago I saw these guys nowhere. I saw some at Tropicorium last weekend (I'm doing some work near Detroit so I went for a side trip to amuse myself on my one day off). Are these guys still pretty rare or are they getting more common nowadays? They weren't cheap, the price ranged from $80USD to $120 per pair (they have several pairs for sale).

Pretty nifty. Definitely ocellaris/percula (not saddle variants or whatnot), all black where there is normally red or orange, and the faces were still orange.

They also have rose BTA splits too so that was neat to see but again not particularly cheap at $120USD each. If I had the space in my tanks I'd have been seriously tempted to bring one back with me (anemones aren't on CITES :mrgreen: )

It still blows me away how many odd fish the Americans have access to. I think we need to put together a wants list and place an order with an American wholesaler.

Re: Black ocellaris
 

Too bad you did not do that. I would be happy to turn my tank into a species tank, and there would be a good market for the splits. One could recoup their investment soon. :biggrin:

No doubt. Tropicorium also has small batches of eelgrass for sale (divisions from an original collected decades ago aparently). I have been trying for years to get this stuff up here in Canada. It's so frustrating to see stuff like that, that you know you want so badly, and any average Joe can just waltz in and buy it like it's nobody's business.

Also saw some cyclops-eeze or whatever it's called. That sure is some weird looking stuff. Frozen together, it looked like a T-bone steak or something, it was only under close scrutiny you could see it was just a glob of granular stuff frozen together. Rediculously pricey though. $55 for a frozen slab of the stuff, ouch (although I suppose that'd be like a 2 year supply given you probably only use a wee little bit of the stuff each time).

I saw some black perc's (I think they are really actually false percs) at Wai's & Big Al's when I was in Calgary a couple weeks back. They were going for $20-24 each. They were completely black except for the tip of the nose.

Cheers,
Victor

Unfortunately "black percula" as a common name is used on one of the other species of clownfish. So although it sounds descriptive, it's not the same fish at all (I forget which one, A. rubocinctus maybe or something like that ... ?? need to do a google search later ... it's not even in the percula complex. yet another example of why common names are completely absurd sometimes..).

If they still have 'em when I get back home I will have to go take a look and see for myself ... the price being low like that makes me wonder a little. But who knows maybe they are.

Supposedly the original black percs were only collected out of Darwin Australia or something like that. So reasonably common down under, but till now not really all that common over here.

I heard that ORA is breeding them in quantity.

Cheers,
Victor

I would be willing to bet money that anything in Alberta labelled "black percula" or "black ocellaris" is actually the black strain of Amphirion polymnus, the saddleback clownfish. I have seen these at many stores, in fact I have a pair of them. They are still stunning fish, and have more black on them than the average black percula that I've seen in photos. Plus they have the fiesty personality.

Oh yes, they dragged two fireshrimp into their anemone.... :evil: :lol:

And those fireshrimp aint CHEEP :evil: