Gold spreads over the whole flank instead of staying in three bars, with the fins left dark maroon and edged in orange. Juveniles ship white bodied, and the gold fills in at roughly one to one and a half years, around the two inch mark. That wait is the main thing to know before ordering. It sits above the gold stripe on price and turns up less often.
In the wild
ORA created the gold nugget, and it has no wild counterpart. It was not a planned strain: solid white fry turned up while ORA was scaling up production of its goldflake maroon, and the line came out of those. ORA showed the fish at Aquarama 2013 and put it on sale later that year. Proaquatix and Sea and Reef both produce it now, and Proaquatix describes it as a further variation of the gold stripe maroon.
Good to know
ORA describes the gold nugget as a genetic mutation that manifests in a similar way to the one behind the platinum percula. The light pigment spreads across the whole body instead of staying inside the bars. The change is age linked: fish start white and convert to gold as they mature, while the fins stay dark maroon with a fluorescent orange edge. Some individuals carry an icy blue iridescence along the edges of the body.
Did you know
Designer maroons stack. Sea and Reef crossed a lightning maroon with a gold nugget to produce the gold lightning maroon, announced in June 2019. It carries the fractured web on a gold body.
Symbiotic relationships
Clownfish and their host anemones
A clownfish lives inside an anemone that stings and eats other fish its size. Its mucus coat keeps the anemone's stinging cells from firing, and a new fish builds that protection up over hours of brief touches. The fish gets a refuge no predator will follow it into and a nest site at the anemone's base. The anemone gets a guard that drives off the butterflyfish that would graze its tentacles, a steady supply of nitrogen from the fish's waste, and water movement at night, when the fish fans its fins among the tentacles and the anemone takes up more oxygen. Only ten anemone species host clownfish in the wild, and each clownfish species uses its own short list of them.
Captive-bred clownfish have never seen an anemone and do not need one; they settle for a coral, a powerhead or a corner of the tank. If you want the pairing, the anemone is the harder animal by far and goes in first, into a mature tank with strong light and stable water, at the tank size its own profile lists. The bubble tip anemone is the hardy host, and the one most clownfish accept in captivity even when it is not a natural host, so a clownfish profile lists it as the usual tank host where that is the case. The sebae, magnificent and carpet anemones are marked difficult, and the carpets eat fish. Expect a paired clownfish to defend its anemone against everything else in the tank.
Is a Gold Nugget maroon clownfish a different species from the Maroon clownfish?
No. A Gold Nugget maroon clownfish is a variety of the Maroon clownfish, Premnas biaculeatus, and it wants the same tank, water and food as the species.
Why is my Gold Nugget maroon clownfish white instead of gold?
It is young. Juveniles ship white bodied and the gold fills in at roughly one to one and a half years, around the two inch mark, while the fins stay dark maroon with an orange edge.
Who bred the Gold Nugget maroon?
ORA. Solid white fry turned up while the farm was scaling up its goldflake maroon, and the line came out of those. ORA showed the fish at Aquarama in 2013 and sold it later that year. Proaquatix and Sea and Reef produce it now. It has no wild counterpart.
What size tank does a Gold Nugget maroon clownfish need?
A Gold Nugget maroon clownfish needs at least 40 gal (150 L). It spends most of its time in the middle.
How big does a Gold Nugget maroon clownfish get?
An adult Gold Nugget maroon clownfish reaches about 6.7 in (17 cm).
5.9 in (15 cm)55 gal (210 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)
5.5 in (14 cm)55 gal (210 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)
6.7 in (17 cm)55 gal (210 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)
5.9 in (15 cm)30 gal (115 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)
3.5 in (9 cm)29 gal (110 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)
3.5 in (9 cm)29 gal (110 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)