Clownfish
clownfish
Red Sea Anemonefish
Amphiprion bicinctus
About
The Red Sea anemonefish is a small, brightly banded fish that lives in a close partnership with sea anemones, sheltering unharmed among their stinging tentacles. It grows to a maximum length of 14 cm.
- Length
- 14 cm
- Depth
- up to 30 m
How to tell it apart
Several other anemonefish in the region also carry two white bars, but most of those have a white or forked tail fin. This species keeps a plain yellow tail, the easiest mark to check at a glance.
Appearance
Its body is yellow-orange to dark brown, crossed by two white bars, each edged in black. The bar behind the head is noticeably wider than the one further back on the body.
Habitat
It lives on outer reefs and in lagoons of the Western Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, Socotra, and the Chagos Archipelago, at depths from about 1 to 30 m. It always lives paired with a host sea anemone, most often the bubble-tip anemone, though it will also settle into several other anemone species.
Did you know?
In the northern Red Sea, this fish strongly prefers the bubble-tip anemone as a host, and mature adults are rarely found living in the sebae anemone.
Log it in Into the Blue
Describe what you saw and we name it, then keep every species you find in your Oceandex.
