Black and White Ocellaris

[waldend]

This is a simple question but I havent found a good answer to it yet.

I recently got a pair of b&w ocellaris and I am curious about the orange faces. Liveaquaria has two varities - england and australia. Mine were orig. from LA and were ordered as the australian variety I was told. They still have orange faces though. Their website states that the Aust. variety ships all black and the england ones have an orange face that stays orange. What are your experieces with this? I have also read that they both varieties turn black eventually. If they do all develop black faces what has been your experience on timing?

Thanks
Daniel

[bawater]

Hi Daniel,
Both of them go full black at just over 1yr to 1.5yr.

pic attached is a England pair- about 2.5-3yrs old.



Regards
Brandon

[Chris]

I find they all go black over time, there is a little genetic variation in some for face colour etc but it doesnt seem to hold well in juvs, seems to iron out in the wash as it was.

Just give them all time.

Wonder if the oz ones are mine!!! :P

Christian

[schlecht13]

I agree with Chris--I can't say from experience, but a friend of mine had (4) black ocellaris, purported to be from AU and all started out as little juvis with bright orange faces, within about ~2yrs, all were completely black. I am thinking about adding a pair of these--any ideas on spawning? Obviously they are probably similiar to ocellaris but wanted to see if anyone has found it more difficult, grow-out stage longer etc.

[Fishboy42]

I think they take, on average, longer to spawn than regular ocellaris. I had a juvenile pair over two years before their first spawn (so they were probably closer to 3). One of my huge (~4y old) breeding females still has an orange nose, but I think it is rare that they don't go completely black (all of my others are all black).

[EZHOOPS]

I agree they will almost always go all black. The ones with the oranges faces are usually fairly young ones.