Lightning maroon clownfish on ebay

I had 3 of these...





...Then I woke up

 

Inbred much?

 

They are F1's
IIRC the pinched heads and small fins were from excessive fighting as young.

 

With 30 fish ready to go, Matt Pedersen is going to see a nice pay day for his efforts! I still imagine even the ones without lightening markings will go for a high price.

 

Yeah, it looks like the more normal looking ones are still going for $500-$1000

 

Anything out there more $$ then these? Or is this Bugatti of fish?

 

Plenty of fish more than these. I would consider these the bugatti of clownfish tho.

 

Have been following this story since right after collection, even before Matt P. acquired the female.

It's a fascinating process.

While I could never afford one, I can for sure see the attraction.

Quite frankly I am surprised that Lightings or offspring of have become available so quickly.

 

Those are some really sick markings......no wonder they auctioned. Something I saw that made this article interesting....simple clay pots for nest beds.

 

Some of the odd mouth shapes, maybe that was fighting (these fish do a lot of tug of war, and that can damage growing mouthparts and cause deformities). The missing and substandard fins? Almost certainly from early damage that's been regrowing, sometimes scarred. Case in point, look at the ventral fins on my "progression fish"; Lightning Maroon Clownfish Pattern Progression – Updated through June 18, 2013 - The Lightning Project - this one was pretty roughed up when I pulled him as my own, and as he's grown one ventral fin regrow well, while the other completely atrophied. So my favorite fish...only has one ventral fin.

The pinched heads I'm less certain of. At the time this batch ran I didn't have RotiGreen Omega on hand, so we used the Nano version which is lower in DHA. Could less DHA have been a play? Certainly a possibility...DHA is highly critical to marine fish larval development. Then again, I think on some fish we're being overly critical of the "pinched head" and here's why:



That's "Mom". Technically, she has a little pinched head herself. Could this photo be evidence of an undesirable genetic trait that the mom has and has passed on to her offspring? I don't know..it's possible for sure. Either way, I hope subsequent breeders and batches are better than what I got out of this first run.