Clownfish could grow to 2-5 in. long. The clownfish you commonly see are the ones that have orange, white, and black stripes, but, instead of orange, there are yellow, red, and maroon. They are extremely aggressive and very active. Clownfish usually live in a sea anemone. Clownfishes are found under the sea in Southeast Asia, Japan, the Indo-Malaysian region, northwest of Australia and in the warmer parts of the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean.

Right now, the population is shrinking. The reason why is that people keep clownfishes in captivity and they don’t survive that long when they’re kept in captivity. Clownfishes eat plankton and the remaining parts of the animals that the sea anemone consumed. Sometimes, they have to compete against other fish to get their food. The clown fishes predators are sharks, rays, and other large, bony fish. To evade being eaten, they hide to their sea anemone and when the predator touches the sea anemone’s tentacles, it will get stung and the sea anemone eats it. Clownfishes have mucus around their bodies to protect themselves against the sea anemone’s sting, however; it won’t protect it against a jellyfish’s sting because the sea anemone and the jellyfish have different nematocysts or stinging cells. Clownfishes are all born male. If a female dies, the dominant male becomes a female.

Author: Chester C.

Published: 02/2009

Sources: "Clownfish -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 05 Feb. 2009 ."Clownfish Biology." Tree of Life Web Project. 05 Feb. 2009 .

Photo credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Clownfish_sprain_water3.jpg