January Fish of the Month 2010

New Year, New Fish! We're going to start off slow... and then build up speed until we get into some really crazy fish! For starters, here goes!

Common name: Maroon Clownfish

Species name: Premnas biaculeatus (the Maroon Clownfish is the only Clownfish not in the Amphiprion Genus)

Synonym: White Stripe Maroon, Gold Striped Maroon Clownfish, Maroon Anemonefish, Spine-Cheeked Anemonefish

Family: Pomacentridae

Order: Perciformes

Class: Actinopterygii

Maximum size: 6-7 inches (for females, males are usually much smaller)

Environment: Saltwater

Origin: Coral Sea, Indo-Pacific (Gold Striped from the waters of Sumatra)

Temperament: Aggressive

Compatible Fish: Maroon Clownfish cannot usually be kept with any other type of clownfish or damselfish. Occasionally aquarists have been able to keep them with a few other types of these fish if the aquarium is large enough (over 100 gallons) and there is sufficient rock for designated territories. Sometimes they cannot even be kept in pairs as they will pick on one another to the point of death. They will bully anything smaller than them and many times tankmates of a similar size or slightly larger. Make sure that any tankmates are larger enough or aggressive enough to take care of themselves when housed with a maroon clown. They generally do better when placed in the tank after more peaceful tankmates have already established territories.

Water parameters:
Temperature: 78-82°F
pH: 8.1 - 8.4
Specific Gravity: 1.020 - 1.025
Water Movement: None needed, but they benefit from a slow to moderate current.

Compatible Anemones:
In the Wild & Captivity: Bulb Tentacle Sea Anemone (Entacmaea quadricolor).
In Captivity only: Corkscrew Tentacle (Long Tentacle) Sea Anemone (Macrodactyla doreensis), Adhesive (Sticky Carpet or Pizza) Sea Anemone (Cryptodendrum adhaesivum), Delicate (Sebae, Hawaiian, or White Sand) Sea Anemone (Heteractis malu), and very occasionally the Condylactis Sea Anemone (Condylactis gigantea) but this is more of the exception than the rule.

Aquarium setup: For a single Maroon Clown, it is recommended to have at least a 30 gallon tank and at least 40 gallons for a mated pair.

Feeding: Maroon clownfish are omnivores and take to almost any type of food they are offered. Frozen and fresh foods as well as flake and pellet diets manufactured by fish food companies are all well received. They do best when fed several small meals a day (3 – 5 times) as they don’t eat a large amount all at once and require more of a consistent feeding throughout the day.

Breeding: All the maroon clownfish are males to begin with and in a mated pair the “female” will grow much larger and become the more aggressive of the two. They can be hard to breed in the sense that they do not always pair off the way you want them to and many times can kill off an intended mate. But once you have a mated pair they will breed fairly easily, but it may take them a few years to start laying eggs. The female will grow much larger than the male and usually darken with age and maturity to a dark brown or almost black. They require at least a 40 gallon tank just for them to breed and they generally pick a very small section of that tank to spawn. They will lay usually more than 1,500 eggs in one clutch, up to 6,000. As many as 4,300 surviving maroon clowns have been recorded coming from one tank raised hatching.


Much of this information is from the following sources:

Wilkerson, Joyce D. Clownfishes. T.F.H. Publications, 2003.

http://www.fishlore.com/profile-maroonclownfish.htm

http://animal-world.com/encyclo/marine/clowns/maroon.php

Thanks Miranda, great article.

Sweeet. Great job. Anyone with pics on this fish?

cool write up miranda.... i have a tomato clown ..... and5 damsels in a 55 salt .

Great info.

Look in my pics in the gallery, you will find a couple .

here is mine

Wow! Semper is going to win so many POTM awards! Nice Picture!

thanks

semper wrote:

here is mine

NICE!

thanks

I would classify maroons more as VERY aggressive, I would rather have a large sailfin tang in my tank then a mated pair of maroons if I was trying to add additional fish