Clown Anemonefish

• It lives in symbiosis with sea anemones, which shelter it from predators because it is immune to their stinging tentacles.
• It feeds on zooplankton, algae and scraps left by its host anemone.
• It became famous worldwide as the star of the film "Finding Nemo".
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• All are born male. It is a protandrous hermaphrodite: the group is headed by a large female, followed by the breeding male, and the rest are non-breeding juveniles ranked by size. If the female dies, the male changes sex and takes her place, and the largest of the juveniles becomes the breeding male.
• The symbiosis with the anemone runs both ways: the anemone provides it with shelter and scraps of food, and the fish nourishes the anemone with its droppings and improves its oxygenation by stirring the water among the tentacles.
• It can occupy up to four anemone species: Heteractis magnifica, H. crispa, Stichodactyla gigantea and S. mertensii.
• The female lays her eggs on a surface next to the anemone, and the male guards them and fans them with his fins until they hatch.
• It is told apart from the true clownfish, Amphiprion percula, by having eleven dorsal spines instead of ten and thinner black edges to its bands.
• It is one of the few reef fishes bred successfully in captivity, which has greatly reduced collection pressure on wild populations.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - bony skeleton (fish)

Habitat and environment

Coral reefs and sheltered lagoons of the western Indo-Pacific, in symbiosis with sea anemones

Birth weight

An egg 3-4 mm long

Size at birth

A planktonic larva on hatching, which later drops down to settle in an anemone

Sexual maturity

Variable; it reaches maturity on becoming the dominant individual of its social group

Gestation / incubation

6-10 days of egg development

Litter / clutch size

100 to 1,518 eggs per spawning (~582 on average), repeated about every 2 weeks

Sources consulted: ScienceDirect (growth pattern study); Animal Diversity Web; A-Z Animals; Animalia.bio; Saltwater Aquarium Blog; Aquarium Source; PMC (egg clutch development study, lifespan evolution study)