Clown Fish
Clown Fish – This species is found on the sea bed amid carpet anemones. It inhabits shallow warm waters off northern Queensland ( Australia), the tropical western Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. Clowning around with a Tropical tease, from its refuge among a carpet anemofish seems to mock onlookers. Any other fish would be badly hurt by the poison-tipped tentacles, but the clown anemonefish is immune, so it has a perfect bolt-hole to escape predators. These beautiful fish get their name from their gaudy, clown-like markings and their often ungainly swimming motion. They have interesting sex lives too males have the ability to change sex and become females.
Perfect Parners
A family unit of clown anemonefish usually occupies a single sea anemone. They obtain immunity from the tentacles poison by coating their scales in the sea anemone’s mucus. This tricks it into thinking that the fish are a part of itself, so the stinging cells in its tentacles dont automatically fire on contact. Both fish and anemone benefit from the partnership. The tentacles protect the fish, who are poor swimmers, from predators, while the anemone takes advantage of food dropped by the feeding fish. The fish also eat the anemones parasites and in passing, fan it, creating increased water circulation and providing the anemone with oxygen.
Part of Clown Fish
- Three white bars – indentify adults of this species
- Body is coated with mucus to protect againt the anemone’s sting
- Stunning stripes – the adult clown anemonefish is bright orabnge with three vertical white white bar, the middle bar often with a forward-projecting bulge. Juveniles have two bars; the tail bar fills in with age.
Statistics
- status – locally common
- social unit – pairs
- lenght – 6-8 cm
- weight – 30-50 g
- sex – protandrous hermaphrodite – develops as male, may change to female.
- sexual maturity – several months
- breeding season – usually around april and again around October
- incubation period – 6-7 days
- number of eggs – more than 100
- breeding interval – a few months
- diet – plankton, algae, larvea, shrimp and small fish
- lifespan – 3-5 years
Myth or fact
It is commonly believed that anemonefish serve as lures for their sea anemone hosts, attracting larger fish intent on an easy meal: when a large fish gets close enough, the anemone supposedly sting and eats. In fact, only large anemone are capable of killing fish, and then only small fish. An anemone’s sting is used to deter predators and to capture plankton, the anemone’s main food source.
cooL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m actually doing research on the clown fish for my little sisters grade 1 oral speech, I’ve learnt some interesing facts, like the male clown fish being able to turn into a female. How strange is that?!
Nemo :)