TankBud

Variety of Ocellaris clownfish

Snow Storm clownfish

Amphiprion ocellaris

One of 17 varieties of Amphiprion ocellaris · See all varieties →

SaltwaterFish

Snow Storm clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris)

Varieties · Amphiprion ocellaris

See all 17 →

Care at a glance

Temperature
75–82°F
24–28°C
pH
8.1–8.4
Adult size
3.1 in
8 cm
Minimum tank
20 gal
75 L
Temperament
Mostly peaceful
Social behavior
Social
Swim level
Middle
Difficulty
Beginner
Breeding
Easy
Rarity
Very common
Reef safe
Reef safe
Family
Pomacentridae

Overview

Snow Storm looks close to a Wyoming White at a glance. The tell is the face: ORA describes it as all white, like the Black Storm, rather than orange. Availability tracks whatever the parent pairing throws, since the same nest also gives black ocellaris and Black Storms.

In the wild

ORA gets Snow Storms from a Black Storm male paired to a Black Snowflake female, a pairing that also produces black ocellaris and Black Storms. ORA describes the Snow Storm as the genetic combination of the Snowflake and Storm mutations showing up in one animal. Neither pattern exists in wild populations.

Good to know

Snow Storm is what you get when the Snowflake and Storm patterns combine, since both widen and reshape the white bars. Stacked, they push white far enough across the body that ORA compares the result to a Wyoming White. Because the parent pairing throws several phenotypes at once, a farm cannot fill an order with Snow Storms alone.

Did you know

One ORA pairing yields three separately named fish. Black ocellaris, Black Storms and Snow Storms all come out of the same nest, and each gets its own shop listing at its own price.

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.

Every symbiotic relationship in the catalog

Weekly picks

Tank mates

Snow Storm 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.

Check the full mix in the stocking calculator

Common questions

Is a Snow Storm clownfish a different species from the Ocellaris clownfish?

No. A Snow Storm clownfish is a variety of the Ocellaris clownfish, Amphiprion ocellaris, and it wants the same tank, water and food as the species.

How can I tell a Snow Storm from a Wyoming White clownfish?

Look at the face. ORA describes the Snow Storm face as all white, like the Black Storm, while a Wyoming White keeps an orange face.

Why are Snow Storm clownfish hard to find?

ORA gets them from a Black Storm male paired to a Black Snowflake female, and the same nest also produces black ocellaris and Black Storms. A farm cannot fill an order with Snow Storms alone, so availability tracks what the pairing throws.

What size tank does a Snow Storm clownfish need?

A Snow Storm clownfish needs at least 20 gal (75 L). It spends most of its time in the middle.

How big does a Snow Storm clownfish get?

An adult Snow Storm clownfish reaches about 3.1 in (8 cm).

Related species