ORA Captive Bread Designer Clowns Immunity

[Uriken]

Hi Everyone. I hope all is well and your tanks are not keeping you distracted all day long while trying to take care of your responsibilities. Without a doubt I'm addicted and don't want to do anything these days unless I'm in front of the tank. Regardless...
I was wondering those of you that have experience with the ORA Designer Clownfish. Do any of you feel that because of the (I'll use the word: "tinkering") of the the different genes to get the various patterns and designs, that the fishes immunity and health has decreased versus a wild caught clown?
I purchased a nice pair of storm clowns. Beautiful pair. They were doing well and then of course one is in quarantine now not eating and acting lethargic with the heavy breathing. He acts almost blind but is slowly starting to recover. I'm treating him for a parasite but that's another topic already on here. I do a lot of reading on these designer clowns as well as all of the comments on here regarding clownfish and it seems like as much as the "tank raised" fact is supposed to be a positive; there is quite a few that get sick fairly easy. I understand fish get sick,...just like people. But the designer clownfish disease issue is the biggest topic it seems when I review the fish disease area. I'm a guy that stays on top of my water parameters. Quarantines everything prior to going in the display tank. But these clowns have been a frustrating situation. The one now in the display tank is flourishing while the other daily I tend to is struggling. The "pair" is now one in one room and the other in the other room. This whole situation has started to get me thinking about the way these various types and patterns have been created in a short few years of time and whether there is an underlying problem with the fishes immune systems because of it. Just a thought I wanted to get feedback on. I hope everyone has a good one.

 

[blaxsun]

It's hard to say, but I did have a designer clown a while back that was dumber than a bag of hammers. He homed the heater, the powerhead, the return outlet - all the while ignoring the actual anemones. He couldn't swim right, either.

 

[jfoahs04]

I think most issues with hardiness of captive bred vs wild caught are likely due to the difference in processes, not so much differences in immune systems. If you catch 100 wild caught clowns, some will die off in the process of collection, some will die in transport to the holding facility, some will die in transport to the airport, some will die in transport to the wholesaler, some will die in transport to the local distributor, and some will die en route to the LFS or shipping direct to the customer. With captive bred, a huge chunk of that process is eliminated, so of 100 captive bred fish, a much higher percentage make it to the LFS or are up for sale at online retailers, many of them are not the hardiest of the bunch and likely wouldn’t have survived the wild caught process.

Broods are so large because nature accounts for large scale loss. Captive breeding drastically reduces loss. Some fish that make it to adolescence in captivity would never have survived in the wild. So it’s fair to say that there may be more compromised fish in captive breeding, but I don’t think captive breeding necessarily compromises fish immunity.