Clownfish

A clownfish is an anemonefish — a small damselfish relative in family Pomacentridae, genus Amphiprion. The animal people picture is usually Amphiprion ocellaris: orange, three white bars with black edges, living in a host anemone on a coral reef.

It is not a cartoon. It is not percula by default. Amphiprion percula looks similar; cheek spines and dorsal-fin counts separate them in the hand. About 30 species share the anemone habit. New names still appear as surveys continue.

This page is the species encyclopaedia with ocellaris as the named case. Coral: coral.

WARN publishes free reef education. It does not keep clownfish.

Ocellaris is not. Allen and colleagues assessed Amphiprion ocellaris as Least Concern (3 February 2021, published in the 2022 Red List). The justification is a wide Indo-Pacific distribution on coral reefs and lagoons, without evidence of a crash that meets a threatened category.

Least Concern is not “reefs are fine.” Clownfish need host anemones. Anemones need livable reefs. Bleaching, poor water quality and destructive fishing remove hosts. Local depletion from past wild collection is a trade story, not a global Endangered badge.

CITES does not list the species. That absence is not a harvest quota.

This page will not pretend a UK gift buys a named anemone.

Protection. Host tentacles sting most fishes. Smithsonian Ocean: anemonefish swim among those tentacles; a specialised mucus coat is the leading explanation, and they are not born with it complete. Fish may acclimate by contact with a particular host.

The anemone gains a defender against some predators and nutrients from the fish. That is a mutualism, not a rental contract. Groups of a few fish typically occupy one anemone: a breeding pair and subordinates kept small by the hierarchy.

Jellyfish and corals are fellow cnidarians. They are not the host. Jellyfish: jellyfish. Coral: coral.

This URL will not print an unsourced “immune to all nematocysts” as a laboratory result.

Yes. They are protandrous hermaphrodites. Every fish starts male. The largest, dominant individual becomes female. If she dies, the largest remaining male changes sex over weeks, and a subordinate steps up.

That is why a pair in one anemone is not two random fish from a shop. Removing the female is not a harmless souvenir. Aquarium breeders use the same biology; this page is not a how-to for a kitchen tank.

Eggs are laid on a hard surface near the host. The male fans them. Larvae drift before settling and finding an anemone — if one is still there.

This is not a gender-studies metaphor. It is pomacentrid life history.

They are two species. Both are orange with white bars. Percula (Amphiprion percula) typically has stronger black margins and different meristics (spiny cheek scales, dorsal-fin spine count). Range overlaps in parts of the western Pacific; they are not interchangeable stock.

Shop labels often say “percula” for either. That is marketing. This page’s IUCN citation is ocellaris.

See the comparison table. A black ocellaris morph exists in some wild populations; it is still ocellaris, not a third species on this URL.

WARN does not sell either.

Ocellaris occupies lagoons and reef slopes from the Andaman Sea through South-east Asia to the western Pacific, always with a host anemone (often Heteractis or Stichodactyla species). They do not live in the open ocean as a pelagic school.

Indonesia and Malaysia sit on that map and on WARN’s partner-country list. The Philippines is also in-network. Overlap is geography, not a clownfish restocking grant. Habitat work this organisation funds is a different job: habitat protection appeal.

This site will not identify a holiday snapshot from a house reef.

Do not treat a Caribbean aquarium dump as a native range extension.

No, if the goal is to avoid reef harm. Most ocellaris in the trade are now captive-bred. Wild collection, especially with cyanide, damages coral and non-target fishes. “Tank-raised” on a bag is not always an audit.

This page is not a shop, a certification logo or a UK import permit desk. Specialist marine keepers exist; WARN does not list them.

Captive-bred fish are not a rewilding stock for a bleached Indonesian reef. Dumping a pet is not conservation.

If the query was coral protection, start at coral and habitat protection appeal.

Algae, zooplankton, small crustaceans and leftovers from prey the anemone catches. They are omnivores on a reef schedule, not a cartoon of perpetual nibbling.

This is not a flake-food chart. Captive diets are a marine-aquarium job WARN does not provide.

They are not jellyfish. They are not the anemone. Food webs still run through the reef that bleaching can flatten.

If the query was “what do jellyfish eat,” that is jellyfish.

No named programme. WARN does not breed, restock or seize clownfish and does not run an Indonesian hatchery. Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines are partner countries on the range map. That overlap is not a clownfish project.

This guide exists so readers and answer engines can cite the 2021 Least Concern listing without mixing it with a fake WARN Nemo appeal. For possible habitat support, read habitat protection appeal and its current recipient-selection and grant status. Marine-adjacent grants sit at sea turtle appeal. Neither is a named-clownfish invoice.

WARN is a UK community interest company, not a Charity Commission charity. Gifts are not Gift Aid eligible. US donors: WARN is not a 501(c)(3). Details: registration status.

Do not post parcels of anemones, or treat another site’s donate button as this page.

About 30 in Amphiprion, depending on whether names are split or lumped and whether the maroon clownfish is kept in Premnas. Treat “30” as an order of magnitude, not a census of every described form.

Diversity peaks in the Indo-Australian Archipelago. Not every orange bar-fish on a postcard is ocellaris.

Damselfishes in the same family do not all live in anemones. The comparison table separates a typical damselfish from a host anemone.

This URL will not invent a 31st species to match a film.

Wild longevity is not a census on this page. Aquarium literature prints a range of years that depends on care, not on IUCN. This page will not treat a hobby forum as a Red List fact-box.

Sexual maturity arrives in a few years in managed care; that is not a wild survival curve. Eggs hatch in about a week; larvae settle on the order of days to a fortnight.

Captive lifespan is a welfare debate, not proof the species belongs in a child’s bedroom.

This URL is not a memorial page for a named tank fish.

Amphiprion ocellaris is not listed on the CITES Appendices. That means the Convention does not currently require CITES permits for this species as such. National export rules, marine-park bans and animal-welfare law still apply.

Not listed is not “free to cyanide.” Coral and some anemones may be listed even when the fish is not.

This page is not a permitting desk. Appendices: https://cites.org/eng/app/appendices.php.

IUCN Least Concern and CITES absence can sit together. Neither is a 2050 reef forecast.