All about our favourite fish dad, the Clownfish!

Most commonly known as ‘Nemo’, the proper name is Clown anemonefish, aka Clownfish.

Clownfish live in anemones, with which they have a symbiotic relationship – they both help each other to survive and thrive.

• They protect their anemone from hungry fish that want to eat the anemone’s tentacles.
• The anemone venom protects the clownfish from its predators, and the clownfish are immune to the anemone’s stings because of the mucus on their skin.

They are social creatures, who live in groups with one dominant female fish, a dominant male and a group of smaller males.

Why Clownfish are the best dads:

1. Male clownfish are great housekeepers: they diligently clean a nice protected area at the base of their anemone for the female to lay her eggs.
2. The males guard the eggs until they hatch, fanning them and moving them around to ensure they all get enough oxygen to hatch.
3. Once they hatch, the males are the primary caretakers of their babies, while mum only helps on occasion (she must be busy ruling the anemone and her harem of men!)

All clownfish are born male. If the female of the group dies, the dominant male fish will turn into a female and stay female for the rest of its life.

Clownfish are small, usually between 7 – 17cm long, with the female being larger than the males.

There are 30 species of Clownfish, some of which call the Great Barrier Reef home, and which we are lucky enough to see on our Viper Whitsunday tour.

The Clownfish we see on our Great Barrier Reef snorkel tours are the typical orange colour with black and white stripes that we all know and love from the movie Finding Nemo, although there are a few different species that we see with a variety of different markings.

The ones in our pictures are Orange-fin anemonefish (Amphiprion chrysopterus). Nemo, is an Ocellaris clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris).

Risks to Clownfish:

• Of the 1000 species of anemone, only 10 are suitable for Clownfish to live in.
• Clownfish can’t survive without an anemone to protect them, so it can be hard for the young ones to find one to stick around in when they are ready to leave their dad.
• Clownfish are highly sought after for home aquariums, and make up a huge portion of the aquarium trade since the release of Finding Nemo. Many are bred in captivity for this purpose, but still many are captured in the wild.

Doing your bit:

• Wear reef safe sunscreen when snorkelling, or better yet, cover up with a stinger suit so you don’t need sunscreen on your whole body.
• Take care not to kick or touch corals while snorkelling.
• Don’t let any rubbish go into the ocean.
• If you see any marine debris or rubbish on your tour, pick it up and bring it home!