Beastfile · Marine Life
Clownfish
Amphiprion
Also known as Anemonefish
Every clownfish is born male, and the largest one becomes female.
Overview
Clownfish live inside sea anemones whose stinging tentacles kill most other fish, protected by a mucus coat that stops the anemone reading them as prey. A group is a strict queue: one breeding female at the top, one breeding male below her, and a line of smaller non-breeding males waiting. Every clownfish starts male. When the female dies the breeding male changes sex and takes her place, and the next fish in line steps up. The change is irreversible, and it means a certain film would have gone very differently.
Origin
Warm shallow reefs of the Indo-Pacific, from northern Australia through southeast Asia to Japan, always in or beside a host anemone.
Habitat
OceanNotable Traits
- •All are born male; the dominant fish becomes female
- •Immune to its host anemone’s sting via a mucus coat
- •Rarely strays more than a few metres from its anemone
- •Strict size-ordered social hierarchy
- •The change from male to female cannot be reversed
Conservation
Least Concern, though the reefs and anemones they depend on are not. Bleaching that kills host anemones removes the habitat even where the fish themselves are untouched.
