I own 3 different species - tomato, GSM and false perc.
For absolute beauty the GSM wins, hands down. Not exactly my most friendly clown however.
The false perc is the friendliest, as well as my goofiest swimmer.
The tomato is my oldest clown. I got her in 1993 and she is doing great. She stands up to the 2 damsels that broke in my first SW tank. (I know, we don't cycle a tank with damsels now, but that was the way it was done in 1990.)
Lynn, I haven't directly answered your question. I love all of my clowns, but all for different reasons.
I am with Mandarin on the percs, either true or false, I don't really have a preference there. My cinammon has become quite aggresive, attacks my hand every time I put it in the tank, and even more so after I added a BTA. I love the look of maroons, but they are quite aggresive as well. Percs have also been know to use a variety of corals as substitute hosts in place of an anenome.
I have a tomato and a clarke's. The tomato dominates the tank and all the anemones. She spawns about once every two months. She bit me once and caused me to bleed. I should have kept my hands away from her anemone.
The tomatoes are a beautiful red and the clarke's have nice color contrast.
<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Lynn:
<strong>Thanks! I think I'll go with the percs, I like friendly!!
Emily, I'm go with reef and fish, just low in the corals though and mostly softies.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Oh, okay. I was going to offer that my maroon has humbled my trigger quite nicely...
I have kept many of the clowns. My all time favorite goes to my A. Polymus (sp?) They were all dark brown/black with slanted white strips near the top. They had a hint of yellow around the pectoral fins which was pretty. I had this pair for awhile and they got very fat. They had a ton of personality. They died 6 or so months ago when I was on vacation but thats anouther story.
I have a pair of A. occilaris right now and a "cinnomin" clown. I agree the melanopus variety is more agresive, but my occilaris female has become VERY mean. I used to be able feed this fish from my hands untill I intreduced a mate. Now it turned against me and I cant even work in the tank with out getting attacked.
I also love "skunk" clowns, they appeal to me becuase of their color and IME soft personality. I think my skunks were always the nicest. And the easiet to intimidate.
I also love the shape of the Maroon clown. The Premnas nare much harder to breed then the Amphiprion though so I wouldnt get a pair, yet. If I was to get a maroon I would get the GSM.
I love my ocellaris clowns. They always have great color and are very active. I like the look of maroons, but sometimes they get ugly as they age. Not to mention, they grow large. I saw an extremely large pair at my lfs. The female was about 6 inches long.
I have a gold striped maroon that's beautiful and friendly. He never bothers anything in the tank and only gets aggressive is somthing goes near his anemone - usually cleaner shrimp after scallops the anemone just caught. Best clown I've had yet, and I've had some really nice false percs before. Whatever bad experiences people have had with maroons mine has been a great, friendly fish.