Gold-striped maroons - Question!!
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jlehigh
Hermit D Crab
In my experience the Gold is bold at a young age and that remains constant however as the female grows larger the stripe changes into more of an inverted tear-drop shape. The males stay fairly small and maintain the striped pattern and color.
Elmo18 would be a great person to chime in here.
Elmo18 would be a great person to chime in here.
This is a good question. IMO/IME Gold stripe maroons have the most varied types of banding. No two Gold stripe maroons, or maroons, for that matter, will have the 'exact' banding as the other. Most of the wild GSMs coming to the LFS usually are all fully banded, meaning there is/are no misbarring. Depending on your tastes, some people like misbarred clowns (where they are not fully barred) and others like fully barred clowns. Is this always 100%, definitely not. The reason is this...
Starting at about 8-12 months, GSMs will get their gold coloration starting from the first head band. This is variable. Some get it earlier than others. At this time, no one really knows if genetics, the environment, foods, or other impacts have effects on the speed at which the bands start to turn golden. The other two bands will later start to turn golden as well, and this is variable again, but when the clown is about 2-3 years, the bands should display its nice gold coloration. This is true for all fully barred clowns and those that have misbars (i.e. the misbars will be gold, just not a full stripe)
So now, lets start looking at the effects of age on GSM banding. Sadly, to my disappointment, as GSMs get older they will 'lose' their stripes/bands. This is usually first seen on the middle stripe. So lets first consider a wild or tank-raised individual with full bars. You take great care of it, and now its showing its nice golden colors. About 5-6 years later (again very variable, but yes it will happen), the actual size of the bands will slowly disappear. This does not happen overnight, but instead a very, very slow process. It's as if you took an eraser, and erased out a sliver of white/gold band every so often. The result is a mature clown with a thin white/gold band towards the middle section of the fish, but will still have a wide, normal band near the fins. In other words, the middle stripe will slowly look like this )( , until the middle part eventually loses all the white/gold.
So then, the question is....how would you know if a GSM is just misbarred, or is old, and showing the aging through the slow, disappearance of its banding. If you look at an older, mature clown starting to lose its banding, you will see that there are no definite detail on where the white/gold banding starts on the maroon/dark coloration of the clown's body. In other words, it is fuzzy, and will blend in first, before you see just white/gold. However, in the case where an adult, mature misbarred GSM, the banding will be more pronounced. That is, the fish maybe only 2-3 years old, but just has a misbar (again a trait the aquarist will decide, whether it is or it isn't desireable.) This is just nature taking its course, and like humans, clowns also show that they are different from one another.
Then it follows the question whether you should get a tank-raised fish or a wild-caught fish. I'm sure your own ethics will play here, but from my standpoint, there are benefits to both, although there are more drawbacks to the latter. Tank-raised GSMs will provide you with definitely longer enjoyment of your animal, pet, etc. In other words, you know how old it is when you buy it. It follows that it will live longer, and you will be there to see it grow and see the process at which the bands/stripes change over time. They will also be a tad tamer than wild-caught counterparts and will have an easier time adjusting to other tankmates. The only thing going for wild-caught GSMs is nothing, really, other than the fact there are two less fish in the ocean. What attracts people is the fact that most wild-caught specimens from Java/Sumatra (Indonesia), are at the age where their gold-bands are at their peak. This would mean they are at least several years old. They are definitely nicer to look at than tank-raised individuals at 5-8 months old, as the latter will still have whitish bands. Again, this is up to the aquarist to decide.
Now on the topic of whether the male or female will lose the banding first in an established adult pair. Again, age is the main player here. A 10 year old male GSM will have lost some of its bands, as seen with males even younger than that. Thus, if you have a younger female adult GSM, she will still display full coloration longer and have its full bands. What is confusing is this, and is more pronounced on the female GSM. When they are given an anemone the female GSM will leave on a dusky coloration. IMO, this is a very relaxed state. Her body coloration will become duller, making the gold bands to become shaded with a slightly opaque gray haze. My female GSM will look like this, until I feed, in which she will go into a frenzy, get all excited and her bands will become bolder. The male also shows this pigmentation behavior, but does it so lightly, that it is hard to discern.
Hopefully, that all made sense. Banding/striping in GSMs....have a couple of players, one either the clown was misbarred to begin with, two...age is a player, and the environment (i.e. anemone, surrogate) it is in also affects how the bands will look.
Best,
Ilham
Starting at about 8-12 months, GSMs will get their gold coloration starting from the first head band. This is variable. Some get it earlier than others. At this time, no one really knows if genetics, the environment, foods, or other impacts have effects on the speed at which the bands start to turn golden. The other two bands will later start to turn golden as well, and this is variable again, but when the clown is about 2-3 years, the bands should display its nice gold coloration. This is true for all fully barred clowns and those that have misbars (i.e. the misbars will be gold, just not a full stripe)
So now, lets start looking at the effects of age on GSM banding. Sadly, to my disappointment, as GSMs get older they will 'lose' their stripes/bands. This is usually first seen on the middle stripe. So lets first consider a wild or tank-raised individual with full bars. You take great care of it, and now its showing its nice golden colors. About 5-6 years later (again very variable, but yes it will happen), the actual size of the bands will slowly disappear. This does not happen overnight, but instead a very, very slow process. It's as if you took an eraser, and erased out a sliver of white/gold band every so often. The result is a mature clown with a thin white/gold band towards the middle section of the fish, but will still have a wide, normal band near the fins. In other words, the middle stripe will slowly look like this )( , until the middle part eventually loses all the white/gold.
So then, the question is....how would you know if a GSM is just misbarred, or is old, and showing the aging through the slow, disappearance of its banding. If you look at an older, mature clown starting to lose its banding, you will see that there are no definite detail on where the white/gold banding starts on the maroon/dark coloration of the clown's body. In other words, it is fuzzy, and will blend in first, before you see just white/gold. However, in the case where an adult, mature misbarred GSM, the banding will be more pronounced. That is, the fish maybe only 2-3 years old, but just has a misbar (again a trait the aquarist will decide, whether it is or it isn't desireable.) This is just nature taking its course, and like humans, clowns also show that they are different from one another.
Then it follows the question whether you should get a tank-raised fish or a wild-caught fish. I'm sure your own ethics will play here, but from my standpoint, there are benefits to both, although there are more drawbacks to the latter. Tank-raised GSMs will provide you with definitely longer enjoyment of your animal, pet, etc. In other words, you know how old it is when you buy it. It follows that it will live longer, and you will be there to see it grow and see the process at which the bands/stripes change over time. They will also be a tad tamer than wild-caught counterparts and will have an easier time adjusting to other tankmates. The only thing going for wild-caught GSMs is nothing, really, other than the fact there are two less fish in the ocean. What attracts people is the fact that most wild-caught specimens from Java/Sumatra (Indonesia), are at the age where their gold-bands are at their peak. This would mean they are at least several years old. They are definitely nicer to look at than tank-raised individuals at 5-8 months old, as the latter will still have whitish bands. Again, this is up to the aquarist to decide.
Now on the topic of whether the male or female will lose the banding first in an established adult pair. Again, age is the main player here. A 10 year old male GSM will have lost some of its bands, as seen with males even younger than that. Thus, if you have a younger female adult GSM, she will still display full coloration longer and have its full bands. What is confusing is this, and is more pronounced on the female GSM. When they are given an anemone the female GSM will leave on a dusky coloration. IMO, this is a very relaxed state. Her body coloration will become duller, making the gold bands to become shaded with a slightly opaque gray haze. My female GSM will look like this, until I feed, in which she will go into a frenzy, get all excited and her bands will become bolder. The male also shows this pigmentation behavior, but does it so lightly, that it is hard to discern.
Hopefully, that all made sense. Banding/striping in GSMs....have a couple of players, one either the clown was misbarred to begin with, two...age is a player, and the environment (i.e. anemone, surrogate) it is in also affects how the bands will look.
Best,
Ilham
Thanks for the awesome explanation!! From your info, I can now say that I have a young GSM - maybe 8-12 months as you stated above. I cannot see any gold on the second & third stripe yet and am just beginning to see it on the first stripe, although very faint!! It is a misbarred clown with not much stripe at all and so I'm hoping that the little stripes that he does have, will be a nice gold color eventually. I couldn't have asked for better info.... Thanks again!!!
af_hall14 said:
Very nice
You will have lots of fun with your clownfish. If you can see the golden coloration on the first stripe, it is probably already at least 10 months+. You may want to take photos every 3 months or so, so you can see how the bands color up Just a thought.Do you just have one or, do you have a pair of GSMs?
Best,
Ilham
Woodstock
I <3 clown fish!
Very good explanation Ilham. Thank you.
