Spine-cheek Clownfish
Amphiprion biaculeatus
- Class
- Ray-finned fish
- Rarity
- Common
- Observations
- 1,128
- Most observed in
- 🇮🇩 Indonesia
- Conservation
- Least Concern
Description
Amphiprion biaculeatus, commonly known as spine-cheeked anemonefish or the maroon clownfish, is a species of anemonefish found in the Indo-Pacific from western Indonesia to Taiwan and the Great Barrier Reef. They can grow up to be about 17 cm (6.7 in). Like all anemonefishes it forms a symbiotic mutualism with sea anemones and is unaffected by the stinging tentacles of the host anemone. It is a sequential hermaphrodite with a strict size-based dominance hierarchy; the female is largest, the breeding male is second largest, and the male nonbreeders get progressively smaller as the hierarchy descends. They exhibit protandry, meaning the breeding male changes to female if the sole breeding female dies, with the largest nonbreeder becoming the breeding male. The fish's natural diet includes algae and zooplankton.
Summary adapted from the Wikipedia article “Maroon clownfish”.