Grade A MochaVinci Clownfish from Sea & Reef Aquaculture
via Sea & Reef Aquaculture
Say hi to the newest members of the Sea & Reef designer clownfish family – the MochaVinci and Black DaVinci Clownfishes!
Sea & Reef’s MochaVinci Clownfish
We created the MochaVinci by breeding our jet Black Ocellaris Clownfish (Darwin) with our DaVinci Ocellaris Clownfish. The MochaVinci Clownfish has inherited the classic swirly white pattern of the DaVinci Clownfish, but the red coloration has been replaced by a more golden and black coloration similar to that of Black Ice Clownfish and Maine Mocha Clownfish. The white swirly patterns fall into the same variations as our DaVinci Ocellaris Clownfish and we are therefore releasing two grades: MochaVinci Clownfish Grade A and MochaVinci Clownfish GradeB. The MochaVinci Clownfish Grade A has at least two connected stripes on each side of the body. The MochaVinci Clownfish Grade B has swirly patterns but the stripes are not connected or connected on one side only.
Three views of the same fish – Sea & Reef’s very first, and currently only, Black DaVinci Clownfish
Our Black DaVinci Clownfish has not been released to the hobby yet (as of November 2014). What you are looking at is the broodstock fish that will be creating our future Black DaVinci Clownfish. The MochaVinci Clownfish was the first step in creating an all-black and white DaVinci Clownfish and our plan was to continue breeding our MochaVinci Clownfish with our jet Black Ocellaris (Darwin) in order to breed more black coloration into this fish. As luck would have it one of the MochaVinci offspring developed a deep black coloration almost immediately after metamorphosis and it looks like we have bypassed a few generations of breeding to get the Black DaVinci Clownfish. So without further due we are presenting you a picture of our Black DaVinci Clownfish from all angles (below). This gorgeous fish is now approximately 2” and has been added to our broodstock collection so that we can bring you Black DaVinci Clownfish in the future. We will keep you in the loop about when the Black DaVinci offspring is ready for the market.
Do you have any black davinci clownfish for sale?
Ben Le, your best bet would be to contact a retailer that offers Sea & Reef Aquaculture fishes; I’m not personally aware of any true, fully-black Davinci being offered at this time, it seems most breeders are at the second backcross stage (75% Black Ocellaris, 25% Ocellaris) which is generally called “Blacker Ice” (if carrying a snowflake gene) or Chocolate Mocha (if the wild-type, 3-striped phenotype). I’ve not seen any particular breeder offering up an actual name for those fish…my hunch is they’re just being put out into the trade as either Black Davinci (“close enough”) or Mochavinci. History suggests that one more backcross is required before the bulk (if not all) of the offspring will mature into solid black fish, which at that point would probably qualify as “Black Davinci”