Amphiprion Latezonatus clownfish information.

The Stradbroke island waters are very familiar to a couple of us and the latezonatus are as well being that this species of clown fish is in substantial numbers in the waters that surround the island.
From many years back to this day they were a fish that would be seen on regular dives around the island.
The latezonatus member of the clownfish(amphiprion) family has a bit of a special meaning in that it is as yet still only found in Australian waters from the very southern barrier reef in the north along the NSW coast to Lord How island in the south.

Where are latezonatus in the wild?

Though these fish can be found all the way from the southern great barrier reef along the Q and NSW coast,the greatest numbers of these special fish are in the Stradbroke island area, Middleton reef and the reefs off Coffs Harbour.

What is a clown fish?

These clownfish-(the word clown in clownfish is actually the nickname for the Percula, all clownfish are referred to with the latern name amphiprion or anemone fish and are part of the damselfish family)-are one of the nicest natured available for the aquarium, it’s a shame they are so expensive over seas for others to purchase to experience them.

What is an Endemic fish?

A fish found only in one specific region or section of water.
The sometimes large numbers of the latezonatus that are sent to other countries are only found in east Australian waters making them quite valuable to the endemic marine life market.

Latezonatus eye problems.
What is a swim bladder?

These clownfish can also be rendered blind by two actions, providing excessive high out put aquarium lighting and bad collecting practises by allowing the fish to be brought from the normally great depths to quickly and the fish quite often becomes what we call, (bent).

Air (gases) at any depth as they ascend expand and if deep enough, these gases will expand to far more than its original size and there is only so much room in the fishes body for this organ(swim bladder) to expand safely before constricting their organs and than protruding from the anal area or mouth and pushing the eyes out wards a little or in the worst case, bursting and releasing the air into the body and behind the eye area causing later blindness as the air trapped behind the eyes and or between the outer protective lens will slowly or quickly kill off the nerves not that unlike the affects of glaucoma in humans.

The air can be of such a volume trapped behind the eyes that it will result in a non bacterial pop eye and the eye will die and fall out, not killing the fish normally but rendering it half sighted.

If this is noticed early a sterilised siring or just dipped in iodine can be used around the very edge of the body to the eye to allow the fluid and air to escape a few times and the eye will be saved.

The (bent) word in this case means that the fishes swim bladder that has had air from the water added to it to adjust the fishes capacity to swim with out sinking at that depth has been brought up to the surface not allowing the fish time to expel any of the air in this natural (balloon) for a simpler descriptive word.

When a fish is brought up from a great depth and any fish relying on a swim bladder that is brought up from waters that are cool to cold which slows the swim bladders releasing function and is greater than 10 metres will get bent to some degree.

If a swim bladder dependent fish is brought up from a great depth and is not progressively brought up to say 15 metres and hung there for 30 mins, than 10 metres for 30 mins than 5 metres for an hour to two hours, than that fish will be most likely bent.

Some examples of non Swim bladder dependent fish are, wrasse, gobies, blennies, there are many, the easiest ways to identify one of these is if they can sit or just lay on the oceans reef area or substrate, plus if any fish that you see bobs up and down to some degree with each pectoral fin action than these are most likely a non swim bladder dependent fish.

Breeding Latezonatus clownfish.

Firstly you can use a room that can be air-conditioned, this would suit this species for their breeding and also a skylight to allow natural light, this will enable the fish are to remain a part of the moons cycle as well.

The non natural lighting in this room should consist of the work lighting and medium to basic strength lighting over the aquariums for some water quality and vitamin converting as the high strength lighting can affect their long term eyesight.

The aquarium or tub area that you have established in the normally matured ways for these fish should be as deep and as large in all other dimensions as possible.

The tank water should be at a salinity of .24 to .26 and never any lower or higher and levels as low as possible from the top edge or have a monphiliment or other non toxic mesh to make a lid for the aquarium or tub because the latz are inclined to jump out.

If you are using a glass aquarium then than blacken each end of the aquarium to not allow them to notice any other life forms in other aquariums in the room and not be alarmed at your movements as well.

There should also be room to move around and look in through the back of the aquarium, though it should have a privacy cover over the back as well, just allowing a small section to lift for viewing behind where their breeding structure will be placed.

A privacy cover should be put on the front of the aquarium to only be removed for maintenance as these fish do not breed if being regularly disturbed until it is like second nature to them in your aquarium.

Try to never scare these fish in any way and have a small reservoir area out side the tank with a hundred micron filter bag upright keeping any and all small creatures in the aquarium and to add fresh water at this point food to plus freshwater top ups as well.

If you want these fish to breed very well than you have to provide a temp increase from say 21c to 22c to slowly go up to 23c to 24c maximum in conjunction with the moons cycle to get them started happily breeding in your aquarium for each second month and you should get 6 clutches per year out of each mature pair.

Fish breed so their young can start their lives in slightly warmer water than they actually exist as an adult to give the young the strongest chance at a good beginning.

These fish breed as with all others so their young can start their lives in slightly warmer water than they actually exist as an adult to give the young the strongest chance at a good beginning.

The pair you choose should be made up of at least one juvenile or place in the aquarium three juveniles for them to pair up and remove the extra one in time.

The younger they start in the aquarium the better as they can be very hard to take from the ocean as a matured fish and expect them to adapt to aquarium life.

The need for a anemone with these clown fish is as with most, not a must, but the place where they will lay their eggs needs to be able to be taken out and replaced by the same thing in the same action, maybe a ceramic flower pot?

The aquarium for breeding latezonatus clownfish.

Inside the very private aquarium for these fish to breed you can use a substrate or not, it does not matter.

There should be structure with the centre of the aquarium protruding upwards only slightly keeping these fish near the bottom.

The structure should consist of maybe a ceramic flower pot with the opening directed at the left had front corner of the aquarium and the current coming from the other end of the aquarium blowing past the opening at a reasonable rate to ensure positioning eggs and high oxygen levels.

How latezonatus clown fish live in the wild.

These fish require cool water in the ocean from 18c to a comfortable 24c, but can survive down to 14 degrees to some degree, in the aquarium for best breeding temps, it should be kept at 21c to 24c maximum.

The South East Queensland large clusters are because of the prevalence of thermo clines in these waters to depths of 15 to 40 metres keeping cool stable conditions for them to exist in.

The latezonatus is one of the few clownfish that in the wild will run from their host anemone and hide elsewhere.

They grow at roughly a rate of from juvenile to adult in 6 months.

The juveniles can sometimes be found in very shallow water but as an adult they try to reach waters greater than 10 to 12 metres or they will stress out and die normally due to the imbalance of ph, salinlty, carbonate hardness and overly intense ultra violet natural light.

The shalowest spot that the club has seen a clown of this type in is in 3 to 4 metres of water until this video was taken.



These next pics are of some of the collected latezonatus amphirions in the south east near brisbane.


A juvenile latezonatus.




A mature pair of latz.




A batch of collected latz from one of the many trips.

drool....

So I am going to get my captive bred Latz Clown a Anemone, and would like either a blue carpet anemone or rose bubble tip anemone. I am curious to know what type anemonies they host in the wild? Any help on this would be great!

Thanks,

Luis