The Lightning maroon clownfish is a maroon whose white bars break into a branching web across the flanks. It is easy to keep but aggressive.
Did you know
When the original wild Lightning maroon female died, Reef Builders published a eulogy for her in December 2020. Aquarium fish do not usually get obituaries.
Caring for the Lightning maroon clownfish
Keep one Lightning maroon clownfish per tank, in at least 40 gal (150 L). It is reef safe. Hold the water at 75 to 82°F (24 to 28°C), with a pH of 8.1 to 8.4. It is hardy and easy to feed, taking prepared, frozen and live foods.
Its temperament is standard maroon, which means genuinely aggressive and one of the most territorial fish in the hobby. A mature female can dominate a tank, harass or kill other clownfish, and bully smaller or peaceful tank mates. Make her the last fish added in most cases, and never house her with another clownfish that is not her mate.
A pair is a large, dominant female and a male that stays a fraction of her size. No other clownfish shows a bigger size gap between the sexes. Breeding it takes a little experience.
Good to know
The Lightning maroon clownfish's pattern passes from a single parent. Crossing the wild lightning fish to a normal white stripe produced lightning patterned offspring. Matt Pedersen counted roughly half the settled F1 as lightning. He read that as one dominant allele carried in a single copy, with partial dominance his best guess. He published the model as provisional, pending later generations. The fish is also sold as the PNG lightning maroon clownfish.
In the wild
The Lightning maroon clownfish line traces to the wild, not to a hatchery cross. Diver Steven Paul collected the female that founded it.
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 Lightning maroon clownfish a different species from the maroon clownfish?
No. A Lightning maroon clownfish is a variety of the maroon clownfish, Premnas biaculeatus, and it wants the same tank, water and food as the species.
Where did the Lightning maroon clownfish come from?
The line comes from the second of only two aberrant wild fish ever found, both off Papua New Guinea near Port Moresby. The second was collected in 2010 under the SEASMART program and delivered to the breeder Matt Pedersen in Duluth, Minnesota, who paired her with a wild white stripe from the same waters. That pair spawned in June 2012, and nearly every lightning maroon sold today descends from the project.
Do all Lightning maroon clownfish look the same?
No two carry the same web. Pattern intensity varies within a spawn, so farms grade the fry and price siblings differently. Buy from a photo of the actual fish. The temperament is standard maroon, so the pattern changes nothing about how it treats tank mates.
What size tank does a Lightning maroon clownfish need?
A Lightning maroon clownfish needs at least 40 gal (150 L). It spends most of its time in the middle.
What does a Lightning maroon clownfish eat?
A Lightning maroon clownfish is easy to feed. It takes prepared, frozen and live foods.
How big does a Lightning maroon clownfish get?
An adult Lightning maroon clownfish reaches about 6.7 in (17 cm).
How can you tell a male Lightning maroon clownfish from a female?
Males stay much smaller than females. A pair is a large, dominant female and a much smaller male.
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)