Cloning a ‘clown’ puts Sean into the record books

October 1986

CLONING a clown has just put Bray youngster Sean Connolly into the Irish record books.

To be more precise, Sean is the first person in the Republic to successfully breed a marine tropical fish - in this case a clownfish.

That’s a extraordinarily difficult task because of the highly sensitive nature of such fish, which makes it very difficult to successfully keep them, let alone breed them, in captivity.

Sean is understandably delighted with his unique first, which was confirmed when he checked it out with the Irish Tropical Fish Society of which he is a committee member.

Having obtained a breeding pair of clownfish from England, Sean set about breeding the pair - a complex process which has taken more than an hour of his time each day.

The crucial point was the spawning stage. To begin with, the fish lay 50 eggs, but this number is rapidly reduced during the process.

But eventually success came with six eggs hatching out and having survived the first few crucial days, Sean is confident that the baby fish will now prosper.

‘People have managed to get fish to spawn before, but they have never succeeded in getting beyond that early stage,’ said Sean, who has been involved with the hobby for six years now.