Clown anemonefish
Amazing fact
False clownfish use smell to find their host sea anemones.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
False clownfish use smell to find their host sea anemones.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Clown anemonefish
- Scientific name
- Amphiprion ocellaris
- Japanese name
- カクレクマノミ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Order
- Blenniiformes
- Family
- Pomacentridae
- Genus
- Amphiprion
A fish of warm coral-reef seas that lives among the tentacles of large sea anemones.
Its orange body has white bands outlined in black.
In a group, the fish of greatest size becomes the female, and the next in size becomes the male.
How the Clown anemonefish lives
They mainly eat zooplankton and algae. Smaller fish tend to stay close to the anemone. Large dominant fish forage farther from the anemone.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity WebBasic data
- Size
- up to 110 mm, average 80 mmUniversity of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
- Lifespan
- 6–10 years in the wildUniversity of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
- Active
- By day (diurnal)University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
- Diet
- Zooplankton, copepods, and algaeUniversity of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
- Range
- Indian Ocean to Pacific Ocean鳥羽水族館
Where the Clown anemonefish 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
- カクレクマノミ
- 简体中文
- 眼斑双锯鱼
- 繁體中文
- 眼斑雙鋸魚
- Español
- Pez payaso común
- Français
- Poisson-clown à trois bandes
- Deutsch
- Falscher Clownfisch
- Português (Brasil)
- Peixe-Palhaço-Comum
- Italiano
- Pesce pagliaccio occidentale
- العربية
- سمكة المهرج الشائعة
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Ikan giru Ocellaris
- Русский
- Анемоновая рыба
- Türkçe
- Adi 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 — カクレクマノミChecked: 2026-11-03
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Amphiprion ocellarisChecked: 2026-11-03
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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