The Picasso clownfish is a hatchery-bred percula with extra white. It is one of the hardiest, most beginner-friendly marine fish, at home in the middle of a reef tank.
Did you know
The Picasso clownfish's pattern is often lopsided. One fish can carry a sweeping white blaze down one side and little more than an extra blob on the other.
Caring for the Picasso clownfish
Keep a Picasso clownfish in a tank of at least 20 gal (75 L). Captive-bred fish adapt well to reef aquariums, and 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 readily accepts flake, pellet and frozen foods.
The Picasso clownfish is peaceful toward other species, which suits a community tank. It defends its host and territory against other clownfish, though, so keep it alone or as a bonded pair.
A mated pair is a dominant female and a smaller male. Like all clownfish, the Picasso is a protandrous hermaphrodite, so the male will change sex if the female is lost. Breeding them is easy, but most fry from a Picasso pair grow up looking like ordinary perculas.
No two Picasso clownfish are marked alike, so buy the individual fish rather than the label. Check both flanks in the photo before you commit, since a shot of the wrong side undersells the fish badly.
Good to know
The Picasso clownfish's extra white is a heritable pattern trait rather than a named gene. Shops sort Picassos into grades, plain Picasso and Premium Picasso, on how much white there is and how odd the bars run. ORA also weighs the rarity of the markings, so the call is made by eye at the farm rather than by pedigree.
In the wild
In the wild, perculas barred like the Picasso clownfish are rare enough that almost nobody sees one.
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.
The Picasso clownfish is a mostly peaceful, social species that keeps to the middle. These picks share a community profile with it, are safe together in both directions, and overlap on water type, temperature and pH.
Is a Picasso clownfish a different species from the Percula clownfish?
No. A Picasso clownfish is a variety of the Percula clownfish, Amphiprion percula, and it wants the same tank, water and food as the species.
Where did the Picasso clownfish come from?
ORA started the line in 2004 with one wild male from the Solomon Islands paired to a typical onyx female, and added more wild Picassos in later years. Aberrantly barred perculas do turn up around the Solomons and Papua New Guinea, but nearly every Picasso in the trade traces back to that program.
Do Picasso clownfish breed true?
No. Most fry from a Picasso pair grow up looking like ordinary perculas, and only part of each spawn shows enough white to be sold as a Picasso. That is why ORA grades on the amount of white and the oddness of the striping, and why Picassos cost well above a standard percula.
What size tank does a Picasso clownfish need?
A Picasso clownfish needs at least 20 gal (75 L). It spends most of its time in the middle.
What does a Picasso clownfish eat?
A Picasso clownfish readily accepts flake, pellet and frozen foods.
How big does a Picasso clownfish get?
An adult Picasso clownfish reaches about 3.1 in (8 cm).
How can you tell a male Picasso clownfish from a female?
Males are the smaller fish of a pair. The dominant Picasso clownfish is the female, and the male will change sex if she is lost.
How does a Picasso clownfish breed?
Picasso clownfish breed as a mated pair, a dominant female with a smaller male. Breeding them is easy.
3.1 in (8 cm)20 gal (75 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)
3.5 in (9 cm)30 gal (115 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)
3.9 in (10 cm)30 gal (115 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)
4.3 in (11 cm)26 gal (100 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)
4.7 in (12 cm)30 gal (115 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)
5.1 in (13 cm)40 gal (150 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)