more on the PNG Lightning Maroon Clownfish

Pretty cool fish, hard to believe there is just 1 like it though.

Figures it would go through the hands of Walt Smith

 

Now that is a cool fish!

 

Hey, Reefers. My name is Ret Talbot, and I am a writer & photographer who frequently reports on the marine aquarium trade. I was in Papua New Guinea for most of March researching a story on the SEASMART Program, and I was there when this very cool PNG lightning maroon clownfish was collected. Just for the record, it appears there are more of these, as one was collected from the very same reef back in 2008. Anecdotally, others have been seen too. Also, for the record, it was Pacific Aqua Farms (Dave Palmer) who imported the fish from the SEASMART Program. In terms of breeding, the fish did go to a breeder! This is one of the cooler aspects of this story actually. Blue Zoo Aquatics, which handled the retail sale of the fish, chose to make sure it went to a reputable independent breeder and not just to the highest bidder (I can tell you that bids of well over $5000 were offered!). Matt Pedersen is the breeder, and he has started a blog about what he is calling "The Lightening Project". You can check-out Matt's blog here:

http://www.lightning-maroon-clownfish.com/

In addition to the length Blue Zoo Aquatics article on the fish's backstory (linked above), you can read the SEASMART article on the fish here:

http://seasmart.ecoez.com/spotlight.html

If you want to learn more about PNG and/or the SEASMART Program, you can check out my blog about the trip here:

http://www.rettalbot.com/onassignment/PNG.html

Enjoy!

 

Very interesting read, thanks for sharing.

How the heck did you find this thread from a state that is VERY far from any oceans?

 

Can't wait to see how much one of these goes for when they start breeding them.

 

lol...are you referring to me? I report on the entire hobby! Proximity to ocean not a requirement!

 

Hi Ret,

Thanks again for sharing.

Would you mind posting some pics here for us? (I dont want to copy & paste something like that without permission)

I saw some on MP blow & it looks like some gold scales along the white lighting.

Thanks
Craig

 

I'd be happy to post some pics, but I can't seem to figure out how. lol Feel free to post some of mine-just mention that they are mine and I gave permission.

Ret

 

I'd be happy to post some pics, but I can't seem to figure out how. lol Feel free to post some of mine-just mention that they are mine and I gave permission.

Ret

 

Matt Pedersen is originally from the Chicago area, and just moved to Duluth MN fairly recently. I only know this because he is quite active on waht I consider my local forum (uberfrags.net). Just neat to know these are going to be bred in the midwest. In his thread the other day he was saying that he is going to be breading it with a regular maroons and hopefully the lightning trait will start to show up in the offspring.