[firechild]

l bought a pair of A. latezonatus yesterday and unlike most Amphiprion and Premnas species they do not have a noticable size difference, l was wondering if anyone knew how to tell the male and female apart. They were collected together and are definitely a pair so its not possible that they are two males or two females also both pairs at the LFS were the same size.

[reefhead]

Never heard, You gotta Pic?

[Bojinx]

I think what you have is two male clowns. Now before you freak out, let me explain. You said they were collected, so that tells me that they are wild caught. Clowns are fairly easy to catch in the wild as they are usually just netted right off of their host anemone. Clowns live in colonies on their host with a dominant female having a primary male and a bunch of subordinant males. Most likely, your clowns are subordinants. Your clowns will realize soon enough that they are the only clowns in the area (your tank) and then they will battle for a while as they try to determine which will become dominant and turn into the female. The female will then outgrow the male. Make sense?

[firechild]

Bojinx, l am actually a marine science student at uni and have just done a major assignment on anemones and anemonefish so l do know quite a bit about the workings of sex change and the like. The thing is that these are fully grown specimens (14cm) and this species do not differentiate in size like most other species. Thanks anyway.

[firechild]

By the way, I think you guys call them wide band anemonefish. They are the really expensive ones at ffexpress ($120 each or something).

[Elmo18]

Firechild,

A. Latezonatus from the Great Barrier Reef are very hard to get a hold of in the aquarium trade. If they are, they are quite pricey. You mentioned you are a marine science student. I'm going to go with the first several posts on this one. There can be subordinate males of the same size if they are collected around the same area. I do not know how to tell the sex by other biological means, other than their approximate size as they pair up. This is also much harder as they are already full grown adults at 14 cm........

Do you see them rubbing one another??

Regards,
Ilham

[firechild]

Yes they do rub against each other, in fact they seem like a very good pair acting the same as any mated pair. If they were small I would have assumed the same thing.

[dougc]

A nearby LFS has one of these clowns, which I had never seen before. I read that they are found only at Lord Howe Island, which is 375 miles east of the Australian coast. This isolation would explain their rarity in the trade. I wonder if there was a recent collecting expedition there? They sure are beautiful, but my tomato clown would probably be offended.

[firechild]

doug, just out of interest, how much were the clowns?
They are found at Lord Howe but also on a small part of the mainland coast, further south than any other anemonefish species.

[tomt]

WOW,
I have a pix. of Latezonatus in a book I'm reading, its at work. I'll check and see if it says anything about them Firechild. Anyway thats an excellent collection to your tank. Wish you the best with them!
Good Luck,Tom

[dougc]

Sorry for the delay. The price was around $75. They had only one.