Bearded Percula?

[kari]

Reposting due to hijacking previous post location.

Has anybody seem a color change (darkening) in the true percula?
Here's a fuzy photo of the darkening color change in the paired up perc. Is it due to mateing or ...?
Looks like its growing a beard.

[Reef_kid]

since all percs are male when born it might be the female maturing
my female is black in comparessen to the male and 3-4 times larger
although some just have different colour patterns
he is quit something
very nice patterns


cheers

[steve-s]

Looks like fairly common melanism that some clowns show as they age.

You can read about it here.

This is a short "snip it"

Originally Posted by ANEMONE FISHES AND THEIR HOST SEA ANEMONES

COLOUR VARIATION

The colour of anemonefish of one species sometimes varies. Geographic variation is most common among widely distributed species. For example, A. clarkii, which has the broadest distribution of any anemonefish, is exceedingly variable over its range. Another type of variation is melanism (black pigmentation), which is somehow induced by the host anemone. This topic is discussed in more detail in Chapter 5.

Other categories of variation are related to sex (see Chapter 4), are due to hybridisation, or are purely random. Hybrid crosses between closely related species have been produced in aquarium conditions, and at least one probable cross, involving A. chrysopterus and A. leucokranos, has been observed by us in Papua New Guinea. The most common sort of random variation involves irregularities in the shape of the white bars displayed by most species, particularly the head bar. In some cases, one or more bars may be absent or greatly abbreviated

Cheers
Steve

[kari]

These big fatso's have been around my tank for about 4 years. I think maybe he's imitating me Maybe if I shave the perc will revert to normal coloration.

I'm not too worried since this has been observed for at least 5 months now. I was just curious about the cause of the darkeneing color change. I agree with the sex-change or maturation influence.

Thanks Alot for the much appreciated notes guys

kari

[Delphinus]

When my current female ocellaris turned from male to female (he was the male in the previous pairing until the female carpet surfed, she is now the egg-laying female in the current pairing) he went through a period of .. they kind of looked like liver spots or something. Just overall splotchiness. There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to them, they were just there. It lasted several months, then one day they started receding. No more spots now, although now when people see her they're like ... WHAT is wrong with her?? Because her lips are so swollen (she looks like she's been stung by bees or something). Again, been that way for months, I can't find any solid info on what could be wrong .... in the meantime she swims, she eats, she lays eggs ... she doesn't appear to be distressed or suffering, but still I wonder what, if anything, I can be doing for her. I just feed mysis soaked in reef vitamins, selcon, and garlic, in the hopes that maybe her immunity can be boosted or something and she gets over it on her own. Chasing her out of that anemone for a hospital or QT treatment would be a nightmare endeavour.