Anemonefish aka' Clownfish

Question, Where you can find Clownfish? Did you know that Clownfish are the only fish that
can live in sea anemone without being stung by the tentacles of the anemone? It's true! The clownfish are actually a big help to the anemone. The clownfish live at the bottom of the sea with the host anemone. The clownfish live in two different types of anemone.

In sheltered inshore reefs it lives in Stichodactyla gigantea and one outer reefs it usually lives in Heteractis magnifica.


The colorful fish clean the anemone by eating the algae and food leftovers on the anemone. Clownfish also help to protect the anemone by chasing away poly-eating fish such as the butterfly fish. In return the anemone protects the clownfish. This is known as symbiotic (or living together) association.

Not all anemones are friendly to the clownfish, of more than 1000 types of anemone found around then world only ten (10) act as hosts for the clownfish. All ten species are found in the Indo-Pacific region.

Basically there are 28 species of true clownfish or anemonefish are the subfamily Amphiprioninae of the family Promacentridae. Of the 28 species within the genus Amphiprion exists, one is the genus Premhas. The other pomacentridd are called damselfish.
There are also two species of Dascyllus-D. trimaculatus and D.albisella - that are sometimes observed within host anemones. These are members of the subfamily Chrominae and are not dependent upon an anemone for survival in nature.

SPECIES:

Twenty-Eight, including:

1. Amphiprion allardi - Allard's clownfish


2. Amphiprion melanopus - Cinnamon clownfish


3. Amphiprion clarkii - Clark's anemonefish


4. Amphiprion ocellaris - Ocellaris clownfish


5. Amphiprion percula - Percula clownfish


6. Amphiprion perideraion - Pink skunk clownfish


7. Amphiprion polymnus - Saddleback clownfish


8. Amphiprion sebae - Sebae clownfish


9. Amphiprion bicinctus - Red Sea Clownfish


10. Amphiprion tricinctus - Three-band anemonefish


11. Amphiprion ephippium - Red saddleback anemonefish


12. Amphiprion frenatus - Tomato clownfish


13. Amphiprion chrysopterus - Orange-fin anemonefish


14. Amphiprion akallopisos - Skunk clownfish


15. Amphiprion nigripes - Maldive anemonefish


16. Amphiprion sandaracinos - Orange skunk clownfish


17. Amphiprion rubacinctus - Australian clownfish


18. Premnas biaculeatus - Maroon clownfish

(Taken from wikipedia)

Anemonefish or clownfish community are some how are not related to each, not like any land animal group and they do not live in family groups. This kind of community is very much common in reef fish though.



Now, question you might have in your mind how do the fish get in the anemone without being related? It is all happen in the reef, when young anemonefish hatch from their eggs within the anemone. These tiny things which they are called fry,will float away on currents Along the currents they eat and swim. Somehow they have a built in homing device which allows them to swim back to the same area of their birthplace and locate a host anemone that is friendly to their species. Just how they do it, is still a mystery.

The roles of Male and Female in clown fish community since they live in group can be divided into three (3) main participants.

(1) A dominant female, the largest and often the dulles colored fish.

(2) A dominant male, consider the 2nd (second) largest fish and the most brightest

(3) Sub-adult male who are not sexually active and plus juveniles.



What main role the male responsible for?

(i) Protecting both the anemone and his mate from any harm.
( the male has the ability for making a 'clicking noise' with his front mouth, by the way, the make can nip as well)

(ii) make sure the female are happy (what a great job)

(iii) Have the responsibility to look after the eggs once the eggs are laid through out the year. To keep away debris. Push away dead eggs

(iv) to provide oxygen over the eggs by fanning with his fins.

What role the female responsible for?

(i) living and staying within the area of anemore

(ii) mating with the dominant male

(iii) laying eggs

Lastly the sub-adult males, what part they play in these group?

(i) Become an early warning systems for predators

(ii) Just waiting their time until they are promoted to dominant male.

This is truth and not a myths, that many reef fish are automatically able to change sexes. The anemonefish or clown fish are born male and when the time right time come, has the ability to turn into females.

Interestingly, the largest male automatically turns into dominant female when this happen, the second largest male will turn into the dominant male. The sub-adult males will remain the same until one or both dominant par die.

It is circles of position:-

(i) if the female dies, the dominant male will turns into a female (Dominant female).

(ii) a sub-adult male or the largest sub-adult male will take over as dominant male.

distinctively, every position between male/female and sub-adult and juveniles have different colors between them to distinguish their place in the group

Most of the time, the anemonefish will be dominated by largest dominant female and they live at least one or two year/s

*** The matured and oldest fish in the community will always be the female. Next will be the dominant male and follow by the sub-adult and juvenile

"P.biaculeatus"


Blackness on a fish (part or whole) is not usually something that can be turned off and on. It is a color in the fish. (Although P.biaculeatus is listed as having an ability to turn its bars dark and light when startled).

The blackness is referred to as 'melanistic' and usually it only affects a few variants within the anemonefish group, although it appears almost predominantly in A.clarkii species.





----------------------------------------------------->"A.clarkii"


Anemone association is a common reason as top why there are melanistic fishes and often the darker color anemones are associated with melanistic fishes. However, in A.clarkii and A.polymnus melanistic fishes are also found in green S.mertensii and S.haddoni and other colors.

By looking at the colors between male and female, you will spotted the difference in no time.

(i) the dominant female exhibits bright colors (extremely)

(ii) the dominant female usually duller since she is much older from the rest of the community.

A.clarkii has colour differences between male and female in the tail (caudal) colouring, or the amount of overcasting on the body. This is regarded as a mild colour difference.


Species such as A.frenatus have vast colour differences between the male and female fish; sometimes it is so vast they are completely different colours.

Most Anemonefish exhibit the male to be smaller than the female. But this is not necessarily so in A.akindynos, A.chrysopterus, A.nigripes, A.chagosensis, A.ephippium, and a handful of other species.">

By looking at the juvenile color pattern of A.omanensis, the Oman Anemonefish. You will notice, there is nothing special about this pattern; but the similarity to neighboring species like A.bicinctus

This picture shows a sub-adult pattern of A.omanensis. Notice the slightly change by the second bar is linked up into the dorsal fin and the white on the caudal fin. The tail of the fish has also taken shape

Contrast with the two pictures above, the adult fish. You can see the differences?

These fish, if you look closer in the wild, will also be able to note the size differences.
Reason, the juveniles are particular hard to see and rarely photographed and their body usually are not as thick like tentacle

I never realized there is so many clown fish out there in the deep open oceans with so many different species, colors and name. Based on which area/reefs they come from. I think to compel or collects them, will takes some times.Yet, we all enjoy looking at these beautiful fish. Don't you think they look cute!

Family: Pomacentridae


Maroon Clownfish
Premnas biaculeatus


Allard's Clownfish
Amphiprion allardi


Pink Skunk Clownfish
Amphiprion perideraion


Seba's Clownfish
Amphiprion sebae


Banded Clown or Clark's Anemonefish
Amphiprion clarkii


Tomato or Red Clownfish
Amphiprion frenatus


Three-band Anemonefish
Amphiprion tricinctus


Cinnamon Clownfish
Amphiprion melanopus

Common or False Percula Clown
Amphiprion ocellaris


True Percula Clown
Amphiprion percula


Saddleback Anemonefish
Amphiprion polymnus


Maroon Clownfish
Premnas biaculeatus

Amphiprion polymnus, Stichodactyla haddoni

Some people would like to breed Clownfish and it can a very rewarding experience, and it's not nearly as hard as you might think.

Obviously the first thing you need is a mated pair. There are several options to getting these. First learn to sex them... which is quite an interesting pursuit when it comes to clownfish. You can check out more on this website Clownfish Breeding