10/27/2017
https://youtu.be/GTnKPPCvhQE
I’ve been a clownfish collector (not breeder) for over 15yrs and a dog breeder for championship show over 40yrs ago for a number of years. I may not know everything about clownfishes and genetics (we’re all always learning), but I feel I know enough to discuss how important breeding for improved genetics is. Just an immediate disclosure… this is not a perfect pair structurally, so no need to criticize anything that might be slightly off with either of these clownfishes in the video. This pair is perfect for discussing genetics from the top 2 USA breeders of our time. Sorry for the dim fuzzy video as it wasn’t taken to market this pair to sell, but mainly for discussion of their lineages. Video was taken under regular fluorescent ceiling shop lights, no lights over the tank or color enhancements.
I selected this pair from Booyah's Reef for purpose of discussion. The breeder for Booyah’s Reef is Mitch May. Although Mitch does a lot of breeding for wholesale, local fish stores and swap meets, his high end Blackhawk Picassos is for retail only and have been highly desired both in Asia and USA. Booyah’s Reef Blackhawk Picasso lineage comes from old original ORA (before the lineage was diluted from multi-generation inbreeding) crossed with Doni’s Reef Snowcasso lineage (after she corrected her defects by introducing a wild caught black percula into her breeding program).
Booyah’s Reef also worked (on at least 7 generations over a 12yrs+ period) with the renowned C-Quest Onyx lineage. Mitch has never inbreed his C-Quest line, he has always linebred back multi-generations to accomplish what he has today. In dogs, I never bred a brother to sister, a father to daughter or mother to son… or even cousins… for this quickly dilutes the genetics and can produces mentally unstable dogs. I have seen a lot of careless clownfish breeders breed brother to sister all the time. I was glad to find out that Booyah’s hasn’t in**ed any of his fishes for at least a decade before I came in contact with him. Booyah’s Reef is the first breeder that I am aware of, where his Onyx juveniles start coloring black as early as 3 months. When you get an C-Quest Onyx from Booyah’s Reef, you know you will be guaranteed an Onyx clownfish. Most Onyx clownfish from C-Quest do not color black until around 9 months. I have experienced myself, buying 15 Onyx clownfishes from a renowned Onyx breeder and only 4 out of 15 mature turned jet black, the rest orange or dirty orange. As Mitch was developing the C-Quest Onyx lineage, he came across juveniles that had extra white markings, every breeder does as it’s in the genetics. Breeders use to called the extra white defects or misbars. Mitch realized a decade ago that if he could develop the extra white barring and with jet black coloration, it would be the best pairing to go with his Blackhawk Picassos. The extra barring Onyx adds deeper rich colors (red orange, bright white and jet black) without sacrificing the unique patterns in a Picasso clownfish. Mitch honors Bill Addison of C-Quest by naming his extra white barring Onyx “Addison’s Quest” or AQ for short. Bill Addison was fully aware of Mitch’s planned breeding of the Addison’s Quest before he passed away.
Today, Booyah’s Reef has accomplished what he set out to do years ago. The larger Blackhawk Picasso in this video is an offspring of Doni’s x C-Quest lineages and I chose this one because I believe that she will end up a black and white Picasso as black is already showing in face, tail and fins. There was not a single platinum in any of the batches from the parents of this clownfish. It is an offspring of Doni’s Picasso x Booyah’s Reef Addison’s Quest. Look carefully, there is no sacrifice in crazy pattern that comes with Doni’s lineage, while improving on the colors that comes from C-Quest lineage. Again, this is not an adult clownfish, it’s a juvenile. The black and orange colors are coming in bright and rich already (remember, this video was taken under regular fluorescent ceiling shop lights). We paired this female with another Addison’s Quest from different parents… again, aiming to improve the color once more, and I know that there will not be any platinums in this pairing too. If you look carefully at the male AQ, it has on most fins and tail black already. There’s also black forming on the face and from my experience, a clownfish like this will end up with a totally black face. Could you imagine how gorgeous an offspring like this would look like… yes, there is a photo of what I have in mind in next post.
Congratulations Booyah’s Reef, you took the clownfishes from both formerly known best breeders in the world at their time, Bill Addison and Doni Marie, and continued their excellent work successfully improving on what they started.
I’ve been a clownfish collector (not breeder) for over 15yrs and a dog breeder for championship show over 40yrs ago for a number of years. I may not know eve...
