Sea & Reef is proud to present the Percules clownfish, which is a wide bar version (wider stripes) of the regular Percula Clownfish. To pronounce the name Percules think Hercules but with a P. Their stripes are approximately twice as wide as that of the regular Percula Clownfish. One of our Percula Picasso Clownfish breeding pairs on a rare occasion produces offspring with wider than normal stripes. Through several generations of selective breeding we created a stable line of wide bar producing Percula Clownfish.
Visually, the Percules Clownfish resembles our Wide Bar Gladiator Clownfish due to the wider-than-normal bars. However, the Wide Bar Gladiator Clownfish is an Ocellaris Clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris) and the Percules Clownfish is a Percula Clownfish (Amphiprion percula). The two species are fairly closely related, and the most reliable way to tell the difference is by counting the number of spines in their dorsal fins. Percula Clownfish have 10 spines in their dorsal fins (on a rare occasion 9) and Ocellaris Clownfish will have 11 dorsal fin spines (on a rare occasion 10). Another way to tell the difference between the two species is eye color, with Percula Clownfish in general showing more orange coloration and Ocellaris Clownfish showing more black coloration.
[Editor’s Note: For additional consideration, compare to the Wide-Bar Gladiator, an Ocellaris Clownfish, shown here in a side-by-side comparison. Note the difference in eye color.]
Our staff named them “Percules” to combine the name Percula with the hero and fighter Hercules from Greek & Roman mythology. This continues the gladiator theme in the wide bar clownfish since the Wide Bar Ocellaris clownfish are named Wide Bar Gladiator Clownfish. This signature Sea & Reef Designer Clownfish was released to the public on March 28, 2025. For a comparison between our Percules Clownfish and the regular Percula Clownfish see pictures below.
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Editor’s Note:
In addition, the wide-bar mutation in A. percula was released earlier in conjunction with a hypomelanistic mutation known as “Tangerine”, which is now found in both Ocellaris and Percula lineages. The Tangerine Percules was released by Sea & Reef in 2024, shown here.
