Barrier Reef Clowns (final post)

Mindi · Jul 13, 2018

Retiring from reefing, busy pulling things down and selling off. Something I found very interesting last few days which I have never seen before, and thought would make a final post.

I had a large BTA and two quite large Barrier Reef clowns (amphiprion akindynos) and over 12 months living in the BTA their two white stripes have faded so far as to be nearly invisible...just a lighter brown, certainly not white. From an appearance point of view they had lost all their appeal.
Sold the BTA and removed it... within 24 hours the Clown's stripes had started to reappear and now on the second day the stripes are white as they ever were....same on both fish which changed in unison. I have never seen this behaviour before and thought it most interesting.

DLHDesign · Jul 14, 2018

Sorry to see you getting out of the lifestyle - wish you all the best in your pursuits.

It's constantly amazing to me how entwined aquatic life is - far more, it often seems, than terrestrial lifeforms. It would be interesting to see if the clowns return to their "dull" coloration if they were reintroduced to a different BTA - and how long that would take...

Mindi · Jul 14, 2018

DLHDesign said:
Sorry to see you getting out of the lifestyle - wish you all the best in your pursuits.

It's constantly amazing to me how entwined aquatic life is - far more, it often seems, than terrestrial lifeforms. It would be interesting to see if the clowns return to their "dull" coloration if they were reintroduced to a different BTA - and how long that would take...

Thanks....actually they will be going to my son's tank on Monday where the twin of the BTA concerned was put last week. I had not thought of that....will be really interesting to see if they change again. Watch this space.