Amphiprion Mocha Clownfish

The Mocha clownfish is an interspecies or intraspecies hybrid, depending on whether you believe that the Darwin Black Clownfish a variant of Amphiprion ocellaris, or it deserves to be recognized as a distinct species. Regardless of the taxonomic technicalities, one thing is clear; the Mocha is one of the first “Designer” Clownfishes to have ever been produced, with records going back to at least 2003 (German aquarist Wolfgang Mai in CORAL Magazine). Mochas are the progeny of a Darwin Black mated with a standard Orange Ocellaris; the resultant offspring show a very predictable and consistent blending of the parental coloration, and subsequent breeding and back crossing has further added the evidence that the “Black” form is not the result of some mutant gene, but a far complexly-unique.

Mocha represents a mixing of genetics that cannot be “undone”; in every sense, it is a hybrid. They can be difficult to discern from juvenile Black Ocellaris at times. While their coloration is rather unique, they are otherwise no different in terms of care and behavior from any other ocellaris-type clownfish.