The Orange Skunk Clown is very ubiquitous in the trade but word has it that there exist a variation of sorts with a pretty little “cap”. Terry from iBlueWater has recently obtained one such specimen after almost a decade of hearsay of this elusive clownfish. The white cap skunk clown was thought to be a mislabeled Thiellei that would regularly appear on stock lists, and when received, they always turn out to be just that – a mislabel.
After collecting severalA. latifasciatusfrom Madagascar this year, Terry decided to travel to the Indo-pacific to look for someA. thielleiclowns. Four days and multiple dives later, he was informed by his counterpart that the elusive white cap skunk clown had been found by a villager who frequents free diving in the most remote location along the island chains. To be absolutely sure, Terry paid the villager a visit to hunt for the said clownfish.
Fortunately, clownfishes do not venture too far away from their anemone hosts (with the exception ofA. clarkii），因此寻找小丑鱼并不是什么大问题。特里（Terry）使用了一次呼吸器，并带有村民（No GPS）的惊人方向感，他们进行了24英尺的潜水，发现了带有有趣帽子的橙色臭鼬小丑。特里将GPS坐标保留了未来的潜水。此后，村民在同一岛链中发现了另外三个。该鱼的DNA被测序并与A. Ocellaris,A. theillei,A. sandaracinos和A. periderion,to see if it is a distinct species, or just a hybrid. We’d like to thank Terry once again for sharing with us this interesting piece.
