• Home
• About Fishes
• Fish Department
• Collections
• What's new
• Find a fish
  • Species name
  • Common name
  • Type of fish
  • Glossary
• Identify a fish
• Student stuff
• FAQs
• Fish movies
• Fish links

Find a Fish

Clown Anemonefish
Amphiprion percula (Lacepède, 1802)

All images: Clown Anemonefish at a depth of 10 m, "The Maze", Great Barrier Reef off Port Douglas, Queensland, December 1999. View larger image.

Clown Anemonefish in their host anemone. View larger image.

This image clearly shows the expanded pelvic fins. View larger image.

Note that the first white bar is restricted to the operculae. View larger image.

The Clown Anemonefish can be recognised by its orange colour with three white bars (the middle bar usually has a rounded bulge anteriorly) and black markings on the fins.

This species grows to 8 cm in length and feeds on algae and zooplankton.

It usually lives in the tentacles of two species of sea anemone. In sheltered inshore reefs it lives in Stichodactyla gigantea, and on outer reefs it usually lives in Heteractis magnifica.

The Clown Anemonefish is found in depths from 1 m to 12 m.

It occurs in tropical marine waters of Melanesia and Queensland. In Australia it is known from the entire length of the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland.

View a map of the collecting localities of specimens in the Australian Museum Fish Collection.

A very similar species, the False-Clown Anemonefish, Amphiprion ocellaris, is found from the Ryukyu Islands, Japan, throughout South-east Asia and south to Australia. In Australia it is known from the north-western coast of Western Australia and the Northern Territory but not from the Great Barrier Reef.

The Clown Anemonefish was brought to international stardom in the Pixar animated film Finding Nemo.

Related links

• Barrier Reef Anemonefish fact sheet
• Blue-lip Anemonefish fact sheet
• False-Clown Anemonefish fact sheet
• Orange-fin Anemonefish fact sheet
• Pink Anemonefish fact sheet
• Red and Black Anemonefish fact sheet
• Spine-cheek Anemonefish fact sheet
• View the Why don't anemonefishes get stung? FAQ
• View the Amemonefishes list
• View the Family Pomacentridae list

Further reading

1. Allen, G.R. 1993. Reef Fishes of New Guinea. A Field Guide for Divers, Anglers and Naturalists. Christensen Research Institute. No. 8. Pp. 132.
2. Allen, G.R. & R. Swainston. 1988. The Marine Fishes of North-Western Australia. A Field Guide for Anglers and Divers. Western Australian Museum. Pp. 201.
3. Kuiter, R.H. & H. Debelius. 1994. south-east Asia. Tropical Fish Guide. IKAN-Unterwasserarchiv. Pp. 321
4. Kuiter, R.H. 1996. Guide to Sea Fishes of Australia. New Holland. Pp. 433.
5. Randall, J.E., Allen, G.R & R.C. Steene. 1990. Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. Crawford House Press. Pp. 507.