Tomato clownfish
Amazing fact
A male tomato clownfish changes into a female when the female leaves its host anemone.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
A male tomato clownfish changes into a female when the female leaves its host anemone.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Tomato clownfish
- Scientific name
- Amphiprion frenatus
- Japanese name
- ハマクマノミ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Order
- Blenniiformes
- Family
- Pomacentridae
- Genus
- Amphiprion
It lives from the Ogasawara Islands, Tosa Bay and the Ryukyu Islands to the South China Sea, the Philippines and the waters near Java.
It is bold for an anemonefish, and during the spawning season females attack while making sounds.
Some young fish have several bands, but as they grow, the number of bands goes down.
How the Tomato clownfish lives
It lives on reefs in areas such as embayments. It eats algae, zooplankton and small aquatic crustaceans. When it brings food back to an anemone, the anemone gets scraps from its meal. Inside the anemone, it is sheltered from predators.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity WebBasic data
- Range
- Ogasawara Islands, Shimoda, Tosa Bay, Tokara Islands, Ryukyu Islands, Minamidaito Island, southern Taiwan, and elsewhere
Where the Tomato clownfish has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- ハマクマノミ
- 简体中文
- 白条双锯鱼
- 繁體中文
- 白條雙鋸魚
- Español
- Pez payaso tomate
- Français
- Poisson-clown rouge
- Português (Brasil)
- Peixe-palhaço-tomate
- Italiano
- Pesce pagliaccio pomodoro
- العربية
- سمكة المهرج الطماطم
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Ikan tompel padang
- Tiếng Việt
- Cá hề cà chua
- Русский
- Томат амфиприон
- Türkçe
- Damat Soytarı Balığı
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 鳥羽水族館 — ハマクマノミChecked: 2026-11-04
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Amphiprion frenatusChecked: 2026-11-06
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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