Amphiprion ocellaris “Naked Ocellaris” Clownfish

Naked Ocellaris Clownfish were one of the first genetic variations to be discovered in the captive propagation of Amphiprion ocellaris. At this point, breeding has proven that they are not simply “extremly misbarred”; misbarring is generally believed to be non-genetic but rather environmentally caused, where some factor prevents the complete formation of one or more bars on a clownfish.

“Nearly Naked” Ocellaris are the progeny of at least one “Naked”, “Domino”, or “Nearly Naked” Ocellaris.  It is generally thought at this point that all of these variants represent a phenotypic range of expression of what we’re calling the “Naked Gene”. It appears that Naked is a dominant gene. If a fish inherits a Naked gene from either parent, then depending on the expression of that gene, the fish will develop into one of the aforementioned types.  At least, this is our understanding based on currently available data and shared experiences from other clownfish breeders.  It is worth noting that the Naked gene can be combined with other genes that alter striping to create codominant phenotypes; eg. a Snowflake Ocellaris mated to one of the Naked gene carrying varieties will develop a portion of offspring which have both the Snowflake and Naked genes; the snowflake gene continues to alter the shape and edging of the stripes, but the Naked gene still attempts to surpress the development of the stripes.  The result is a fish which has small, irregular and incomplete squiggles for stripes. This is how the Midnight Lightning Black Ocellaris was created (in the hybridized Black Ocellaris lines).