The red saddleback anemonefish, ''Amphiprion ephippium'', also known as the saddle anemonefish, is a

marine fish Saltwater fish, also called marine fish or sea fish, are fish that live in seawater. Saltwater fish can swim and live alone or in a large group called a school. Saltwater fish are very commonly kept in aquariums for entertainment. Many saltwater f ...

belonging to the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Pomacentridae, the

clownfish Clownfish or anemonefish are fishes from the subfamily Amphiprioninae in the family Pomacentridae. Thirty species of clownfish are recognized: one in the genus '' Premnas'', while the remaining are in the genus '' Amphiprion''. In the wild, t ...

es and

damselfish Damselfish are those within the subfamilies Abudefdufinae, Chrominae, Lepidozyginae, Pomacentrinae, and Stegastenae within the family Pomacentridae. Most species within this group are relatively small, with the largest species being about 30 ...

es.

Characteristics of Anemonefish

Clownfish or anemonefish are

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

es that, in the wild, form

symbiotic Symbiosis (from Greek , , "living together", from , , "together", and , bíōsis, "living") is any type of a close and long-term biological interaction between two different biological organisms, be it mutualistic, commensalistic, or parasit ...

mutualisms with sea anemones and are unaffected by the stinging tentacles of the host anemone, see . The sea anemone protects the clownfish from predators, as well as providing food through the scraps left from the anemone's meals and occasional dead anemone tentacles. In return, the clownfish defends the anemone from its predators, and parasites. Clownfish are small-sized, , and depending on species, they are overall yellow, orange, or a reddish or blackish color, and many show white bars or patches. Within species there may be color variations, most commonly according to distribution, but also based on sex, age and host anemone. Clownfish are found in warmer waters of the

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

and

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

oceans and the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; T ...

in sheltered

reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic processes— deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock out ...

s or in shallow

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') a ...

s. In a group of clownfish, there is a strict

dominance hierarchy In biology, a dominance hierarchy (formerly and colloquially called a pecking order) is a type of social hierarchy that arises when members of animal social animal , social groups interact, creating a ranking system. A dominant higher-ranking i ...

. The largest and most aggressive fish is female and is found at the top. Only two clownfish, a male and a female, in a group reproduce through

external fertilization External fertilization is a mode of reproduction in which a male organism's sperm fertilizes a female organism's egg outside of the female's body. It is contrasted with internal fertilization, in which sperm are introduced via insemination and then ...

. Clownfish are sequential hermaphrodites, meaning that they develop into males first, and when they mature, they become females.

Description

Adults, as the common name suggests, have a reddish-orange body and a black saddle or spot on the sides. While small juveniles may have 2 or 3 white bars, these are not present in mature fish. They have 10-11 dorsal spines, 2 anal spines, 16-18 dorsal soft rays and 13-14 anal soft rays. They reach a maximum length of .

Color variations

None known.

Similar species

The lack of a white head bar on adults distinguishes A. ephippium from the somewhat similar A. frenatus, A. melanopus, and A. rubrocinctus. Image:Tomato clownfish Amphiprion frenatus.jpg, '' A. frenatus'' (Tomato anemonefish) Image:Amphiprion melanopus RLS.jpg, '' A. melanopus'' (Red & Black anemonefish) Image:Amphiprion rubrocinctus RLS.jpg, '' A. rubrocinctus'' (Australian anemonefish)

Distribution and Habitat

A. ephippium is found in the

Andaman and Nicobar Islands The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory of India consisting of 572 islands, of which 37 are inhabited, at the junction of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The territory is about north of Aceh in Indonesia and separated f ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

, and

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

. The original collection locality,

Tranquebar Tharangambadi (), formerly Tranquebar ( da, Trankebar, ), is a town in the Mayiladuthurai district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu on the Coromandel Coast. It lies north of Karaikal, near the mouth of a distributary named Uppanar of the Kave ...

is believed to be erroneous as it is outside the known range.

Host anemones

A. ephippium is associated with the following species of anemones: *''

Entacmaea quadricolor Bubble-tip anemone (''Entacmaea quadricolor'') is a species of sea anemone in the family Actiniidae. Like several anemone species, ''E. quadricolor'' can support several anemonefish species, and displays two growth types based on where they live ...

'' Bubble-tip anemone *''

Heteractis crispa The sebae anemone (''Heteractis crispa''), also known as leathery sea anemone, long tentacle anemone, or purple tip anemone, is a species of sea anemone belonging to the family Stichodactylidae and native to the Indo-Pacific area. It was firs ...

'' Sebae anemone

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q1532838 Amphiprion Fish described in 1790