check out the lightning maroon....

**Troylee** · 04-01-2010, 11:35 AM

this is bad to the bone...
Lightning maroon clownfish from Blue Zoo Aquatics will be entrusted to an accomplished fishbreeder

**mike_dani** · 04-01-2010, 12:09 PM

I want

**akabryanhall** · 04-01-2010, 12:11 PM

Happy april 1st!!

**knucklehead** · 04-01-2010, 12:14 PM

sorry you got ninjad! i already posted a thread yesterday on this lol

**Typhon** · 04-01-2010, 12:49 PM

ha ha.. the April fools post are getting better every year!!

**Troylee** · 04-01-2010, 01:57 PM

i think this is the real deal... it was posted yesterday morning... if there is a thread on here already sorry bout that... i was on all day and didnt see it...

**jaytizzle** · 04-01-2010, 02:08 PM

Originally Posted by troylee

i think this is the real deal... it was posted yesterday morning... if there is a thread on here already sorry bout that... i was on all day and didnt see it...

Yeah, doesn't appear to be a 4/1 joke... unless someone went through a LOT of trouble to fabricate a lot of pictures and provide links to other forums with fabricated dates and pictures. It appears to be legit. But you did get ninja'd and that is funny in itself!

**Nanofins** · 04-01-2010, 02:12 PM

It's real. Saw it in Cally on Tuesday at the wholesaler's before it went out. No joke here, and that thing is sick!

I was a little disappointed that it had sold already, but I just found out some good news that it sold to someone local to me here in MN!

**Troylee** · 04-01-2010, 03:41 PM

you guys lost me... what you mean ninja'd? sorry not to computer savy..... cant you tell by all periods....

**jam3s** · 04-01-2010, 03:52 PM

Take a look at Blue Zoo Aquatic's article. The whole story is there. Someone bid 5k on this sweet fish!

**FishLipz** · 04-01-2010, 04:04 PM

Glad to see that Blue Zoo is selling to a person with experience in breeding so maybe we can all have one of these someday. Not just a select few with DEEP pockets. If it is real that is.

**nicks387** · 04-01-2010, 04:22 PM

Its not the only one. They found 3 of them at least.

**Jeremym420** · 04-01-2010, 04:57 PM

It is the only one. If you read the blue zoo article, they mentioned collecting other normal maroons from the same area the lightning was found.

On Tuesday, the PNG lightning maroon clownfish was shipped to Pedersen. Blue Zoo also sent a large, female “normal” maroon clownfish collected from the same reef in an effort to provide Pedersen with the best mate. Blue Zoo is also planning to obtain two more juveniles from the same reef in the event that the initial pairing is unsuccessful.

**ddiver** · 04-01-2010, 05:14 PM

Way awesome..

**FateX8** · 04-01-2010, 05:31 PM

they found one years ago and then they found this one
but yesterday they found another one
theyre paying the collectors a little more for the lightning maroons so now theres an incentive to collect these

**XCrunnr36** · 04-01-2010, 07:17 PM

wow well i hope it's not a 4/1 joke cause that thing is AWESOME

**kingfisherfleshy** · 04-02-2010, 11:28 AM

The things they are doing with clowns these days are just sweet. I hope that they can start breeding these on a large scale.

**Ret_Talbot** · 04-03-2010, 08:13 PM

Hey, Guys. My name is Ret Talbot, and I'm a writer and photographer who frequently covers the trade. I was in Papua New Guinea (researching a story on the SEASMART Program) when this fish was collected, and I have been following the story very closely ever since. I just thought I'd add a few things here for those of you who are interested.

First, $5000 was one bid, but there was at least one much higher than that received by Blue Zoo Aquatics, who handled the retail sale of this fish. As you know, Blue Zoo decided to sell to a reputable breeder instead of to the highest bidder...pretty cool I think! Matt Pedersen is the breeder, and his blog about the project is located here:

The Lightning Project - The ongoing saga of the PNG Lightning Maroon Clownfish Breeding Project

This is officially the second PNG lightning maroon clownfish to hit the North American market. The other arrived in 2008. There have been some other cool perc variations seen (and even collected) on this reef. These are all 100% natural fishes (not manufactured designer clownfishes). Anecdotally, there are more "true" PNG lightning maroon clowns on this reef as I type. There was an April Fools gag published at ReefBuilders about a third juvi collected on 1 April. It was a pretty good gag and a nice Photoshop job. :-)

Just to add to what was said above about the fishers getting paid a little more for PNG lightning maroon clowns, what we may call "fair trade" is a hallmark of the SEASMART Program. The SEASMART-trained fisher who collected this fish was paid several times the amount of the most expensive fish ordered by SEASMART that week. Again, pretty cool, I think.

The Blue Zoo article mentioned above is lengthy and comprehensive. It can be found here:

The Story Behind Blue Zoo's PNG Lightning Maroon Clownfish

There is a much shorter SEASMART article here:

seasmart

There is some background on PNG and SEASMART in the blog about my trip here:

On Assignment in Papua New Guinea with Travel Writer and Photographer RetTalbot

...and by the way, the PNG lightning maroon clown was not the only cool fish I saw on the trip, as evidenced by this wrasse. Enjoy!

**Azurel** · 04-03-2010, 08:39 PM

Hey Ret

Nice write up and WELCOME to R2R.....I bet pics don't do that clown any justice.....

**Ret_Talbot** · 04-03-2010, 09:22 PM

Originally Posted by Azurel

Hey Ret

Nice write up and WELCOME to R2R.....I bet pics don't do that clown any justice.....

Thanks for the welcome, and, no, pictures don't do these species justice :-). The people from Papua New Guinea are also some of the most beautiful people I have ever photographed!