Percula vs False Perc???

[Larry Grenier]

I know this group is full of clowns, I mean clown fish experts, so I thought I'd ask. I don't know my clowns very well. I think I have a false perc. How can I tell a false perc from a true perc? He does have a fairly thick black border between the orange and white.

 

Would I have a problem if I put a fale and a true by accident in the same tank? Would dit be like that classic episode of Star Treck where the Half-Black-half-white guys kept fighting? I got the fish at BRK over 1 year ago if that helps. I'm at work; no pics.

[Folta]

I think the easiest way to tell is to look at their eyes... the true percs tend to have orange circles in their eyes while the false percs do not.

 

True perc:

 

false perc:

 

I had (I believe) one of each when I first had my tank, and they got along together just fine.

[BeltwayBandit]

Pet peeve alert!... They are Oscelaris not False Percs! As far as telling them apart...

 

Percula:

# Typically orange in color with three white bars, with the middle bar having a forward-projecting bulge.

# Has 10 (rarely 9) dorsal spines.

# Usually has jet black margins of varied widths around its white bars, often of which can be rather thick.

# Distribution of this species in nature: Northern Queensland and Melanesia (New Guinea, New Britain, New Ireland, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu).

 

Oscelaris:

# Typically orange in color with three white bars, with the middle bar having a forward-projecting bulge.

# Has 11 (rarely 10) dorsal spines.

# The spinous (anterior) part of the dorsal fin is taller.

# May have no black margins present, but most often has thin, never thick black margins around its white bars.

# Distribution of this species in nature: Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Andaman Sea), Indo-Malayan Archipelago, Philippines, northwestern Australia; coast of Southeast Asia northwards to the Ryukyu Islands.

 

 

Generally the number of spines and the black margins are the tell tale differences between the two species.