Lightning maroon clownfish on ebay

The clown fish on the auction site are nothing compared to the one posted above. I was wondering what the appeal was until I saw this one. That is one cool looking looking clownfish.

 

I feel like a bug drawn towards a zapper. This is a stunning fish. Absolutely gorgeous. How could I have lived so long without knowing this was a thing?

 

No, not the current fish, but future generations. The broodstock is very limited to say the least. Then, if people are buying more than one fish at the auction, you can pretty much bet they will be breeding the two of them and not bringing other genes to the pool.

Are all the F1s from the same pair?

The fish is indeed beautiful.

 

You're right, they're not the same at this point in time. Again, let me first point you to the photographic series that shows how the pattern has developed in a single fish over the first year of its life - Lightning Maroon Clownfish Pattern Progression – Updated through June 18, 2013 - The Lightning Project

At this point, I think it's fair to say that it is a leap of faith that a buyer is taking that these F1 offspring will ultimately look like Mom. I believe that will be the final outcome, because you can see how it has progressed up to this point. When you look at a fish like LM8 () it's getting to be pretty clear that the prediction is right.

Here's a couple young and older photos I was able to dig up this morning

LM6 when young, 7-17-2012


LM6, still young, 7-27-12 (note the fin damage that occured at a young age...many were like this):


LM6 now, 6-17-2013:


I've been trying to correllate some other juveniles to recent shots but haven't quite figured them out yet. I have a few more that might match up, but you get the point with the above.

I could still be wrong of course, but I'd gamble on the pattern development much more than I'd gamble on whether the non-lightning siblings carry a hidden lightning gene (I don't think they do, and I've drawn odds at the chances being less than 1/3).

All the F1's are not only from the same pair (there's only ONE living wild Lightning Maroon, and hell no I'm not going to try rotating its mates!), they are siblings from the same batch. I have TWO tiny ones I've managed to eek out in 2013 so far.

As far as bringing other genes into the pool, that indeed will need to happen, but not immediately. In fish, there's this old rule that you can line breed for about 6 generations before the inbreeding is severe enough to cause complications. If you give clownfish a generation time of even only 10 years, that translates to 60 years from now....it could easily be stretched to 20 years per generation...and thus, 120 years from now. Of course, more likely breeders will scramble to refine and tinker, which means the shortest generation times possible.

I maintain another pair of F0 PNG White Stripe Maroons which, if they had started spawning yet, would make good outcross fish. That hopefully will come someday. I'd like to see the PNG provenance kept pure with Lightnign Maroons, but that's an uphill battle since PNG fish have been only sporadically available.

It will be very curious to see what the Lighting X Lightning cross produces...since the genetic expressions are all available to us (the 50/50 F1 ratio is possible for all three examined types of expression...recessive, partial dominance, or straight up dominance) it's anyone's guess. I *think*, based on the way Picasso and "Gladiator (Wyoming White's single dose form) work, that Lightning is most likely partially dominant, which means Lightning X Lightning would yield 25% white stripes, 50% Lightnings, and 25% something new. Unless of course, two doses of Lightning is FATAL (it sounds that way for Snowflake...that's still up in the air).

 

I guess I'll be in the minority- That fish is ugly. I wouldn't pay $6, let alone $6,000.

 

lol i feel the same way about a porche 911, but certain people spend way more than 6g's on them ;D heck i wouldnt spend 6g's on this fish either. but you cant ignore the process that was involved to get it this far, pretty cool stuff.

 

The process is interesting, but also a bit sad.

 

WOW! that is crazy. its a nice looking clown thou, but not for that price

 

If you rotate mates you should try and get a really nice goldflake/goldflag

 

M. Perdersen, to your knowledge have any other "Lightings," been collected since you received the female?