Yeah…this is one of those times where no news is relatively good news. I’m in need of some Lightning Maroon Clownfish updates! Where to begin?
How about the new pair of Maroon Clowns I got from Greg a while back. He had them spawning, but they’ve yet to spawn since arriving…I picked them up from Greg on September 19th, 2010 if memory serves right. 
I’ve been watching this pair for a while.  The female is a white stripe, “The female was purchased at Fish and Pets (defunct ) in Rochester, MN.” according to Greg.  The male appears, on some levels, to look like it might be a Gold Stripe, or perhaps maybe a cross with a Gold Stripe.  I’ve done some preliminary work with Greg to nail down where the male came from, and so far the best answer we’ve come up with is a breeder who was selling maroon clowns at a frag swap in Madison, WI, maybe 1.5 years ago.  Working on getting a better answer…I’d like to find out more about the male’s lineage, just for my own reasoning.
The main reason for picking up this pair was to possibly do some rotating.  First, get the fish back into the swing of spawning, which 2 months in has yet to happen (not surprising).  Once spawning, I could conceivably use this actively spawning white stripe female as a possible mate for the Lightning Clown, at least to get the ball rolling.  I could also use the male as a placeholder, or the female as a placeholder, to help force sexes on the other PNG maroons I have on hand currently.  Sadly, EVERYTHING remains in limbo at this moment…lots of maroon clowns floating around and yet nothing really going on.]
The Gold Stripe female that I picked up a few months ago continues to live happily with her PNG male.  At this point, were I to opt to push the Lightning Maroon to become a female, the white stripe male with the Gold Stripe female would be the choice.  Still, if I really take my time, I could force one of these other PNG juveniles to become a full blown female, at which point I could use it with the Lighting Maroon (again, assuming the Lightning remains male through all of this).  Meanwhile, this pair *might* be spawning…the male sometimes disappears for days on end, which is suggestive of nest tending, although I haven’t found any nests nor have I observed the female Gold Stripe Maroon to get “ripe” and then look “spawned out”.  So officially, despite having 9 different Maroon Clownfish in the basement, I don’t have ANY spawnings occuring in any of the pairings.
I’ve put in a special request with David and Mark @ SEASMART.  I asked them specifically to try to find me another large female from Fisherman’s Island and to have it shipped direct if possible…keeping it in the chain of custody as little as possible.  Along with that, they’ve had some nice small males show up with abberant markings.  Foregoing any outside chance of finding yet another Lightning Maroon, a male with these markings might be indicative of possibly a genetic predisposition, or even going so far as to suggest that perhaps these are ultra-low-grade examples of a wide continuum of Lightning Maroon mutation.   Of course, this all remains on the horizon.
I have also been patiently awaiting the arrival of a new home for the Lightning Maroon and its future mate.  I’ve been keeping this very hush hush, primarily because I don’t want to jynx it!  Of course, a couple weeks back, the tank was finally on its way only to be crushed by the freight carrier.  Back to waiting.  What I will say is that the ultimate home of the Lightning Maroon will be the nicest and most modern tank I own when it’s all said and done.  I hope furthermore to deck it out to showcase exclusively the marinelife of PNG as presented by the SEASMART program.  I have also decided to go back to the drawing board and be schooled in SPS husbandry by my friends Jay and Frank, who clearly do worlds better with their SPS than I ever have.  Of course, SEASMART isn’t even planning on releasing corals from the mariculture program for at least another couple weeks (last we all heard, December 2010), so there is still time to plan for all this.
And that sums it up for the moment.  We all knew this was going to be a very long, drawn out project, so it should come as no surprise that things have been quiet for a while.  Even I must admit, the waiting is starting to get to me…I really want SOMETHING to happen.  Then again, I look at the pair of Fire Clowns, Amphiprion ephippium, that have been “working on it” for over a year now and have not yet spawned either.  Clownfish just take time.  Pair of Black Ocellaris took 4 years.  So, nothing here is gonna be rushed.  If I don’t post again before the end of November, a happy Thanksgiving Holiday to all the US readers!