Clownfish were portrayed in a famous cartoon as living in an anemone but is this true?

Clownfish live in shallow coral reef tropical waters of the Central, Western, and South Pacific, the Indian Ocean, and the Red Sea. Within these waters, clownfish live in anemones which are from the group Cnidarians that have stinging cells to kill prey and protect themselves and clownfish from predators.

Sounds simple right?

I’m not going to let you off the hook that easy(no pun intended).

What is an Anemone?

As stated above, anemones are from the group Cnidarians which can sting their prey to eat or sting predators to keep them away.

They are closely related to corals and jellyfish which were completely more well-known before the infamous Nemo movie found its way into our hearts.

Anemones are also called sessile polyps with sessile meaning they are attached to their base and for polyps, I’ll give you the dictionary definition:

a solitary or colonial sedentary form of a coelenterate such as a sea anemone, typically having a columnar body with the mouth uppermost surrounded by a ring of tentacles. In some species, polyps are a phase in the life cycle that alternates with a medusoid phase.
Oxford Languages

To best describe their shape you can picture taking a rectangle or square bag, closing both ends, and pushing one the top half down towards the bottom.

AnemoneAnatomy PetAquariums Perfect Home for a Clownfish to Live In?

You can see that an anemone has an oral disc and a pedal disc at each end.

The oral disc has its infamous tentacles that the clownfish live in surrounding the mouth of the anemone.

Their mouth leads to an opening that acts as a stomach, bowel, and in some species for reproduction.

The pedal disc on most anemones allows it to attach to something like a coral, walk, or free float in the water.

Everything is healed together by the mesenteries.

The skeleton of an anemone is ‘hydrostatic’ which means it contracts by taking in or pushing water out to the point that water makes up 80 percent of an anemone’s weight.

Anemones usually push out water to get rid of waste from themselves but they can also do it in response to changes in water chemistry, being touched, or for things that haven’t yet been discovered,

Anemones feed off plankton(microscopic organisms) as the plankton tries to pass by so the stronger the current, the more plankton the anemone can eat.
Anemones get most of their nourishment from glycerol which is photosynthesized by algae that live in their cells.
Anemones sting and paralyze passing prey such as snails, fish, and urchins with their tentacles and eat them.

Since anemones sting and eat fish, it is time to explain one of the coolest relationships known in the ocean…

Why Do Clownfish Live in Anemones?

While most fish that get close enough to an anemone can be stung and then pulled into the tentacles of an anemone and eaten, clownfish use this as their means of protection, usually never going more than a few yards from their host anemone.

Clownfish are slow swimmers, so they wouldn’t survive long if they didn’t have this relationship with their anemone.

This is one of the laws of mother nature, so much so in fact that without anemones, there wouldn’t be any clownfish.

Once a clownfish is born, it is a larva and floats to the surface because they are attracted to light where the phytoplankton is that they will feed on for 7-21 days.

The clownfish then sinks to the bottom and transforms into a juvenile clownfish where it must find a host anemone right away or it will die. Very few clownfish survive to this point, much less find an anemone where the clownfish will accept another clownfish.

Do a Clownfish and Anemones Need Each Other?

If you have a clownfish in an aquarium, the clownfish can absolutely survive without an anemone.

In fact, it is recommended that you don’t even try to put an anemone in the tank since anemones are extremely hard to keep alive in captivity and it would promote them being harvested from the ocean where they can live extremely long.

However, in the wild, if an anemone has a family of clownfish then they probably wouldn’t last long without each other.

Also, clownfish can’t survive without anemones in the wild but there are anemones that live without clownfish.

What Does a Clownfish do for an Anemone?

Clownfishes chase away fishes that can eat coral or parts that the anemone is attached to.
Clownfish clean waste in between the tentacles and the rest of the oral disc of the anemone.
Clownfish swim through the tentacles creating more water circulation and oxygen, stimulating growth and respiration.
Waste from the clownfish’s poop and gills nourishes the anemone. The clownfish poop also nourishes the algae that grow on the anemone in turn nourishing the anemone.
Since clownfish are so colorful, they attract fish that try to prey on the clownfish but end up becoming food for the anemone.
Clownfish eat parasites off the anemone that could otherwise cause illness.

What Does an Anemone do for a Clownfish?

Protects them from predators.
Clownfish eat dead parts of tentacles or other body parts, which helps both parties.
The tentacles also keep the nest safe when the clownfish lays eggs.
Clownfish eat any leftover food that the anemone has not eaten.

Which Clownfish Live in Which Anemones?

ClownfishAnemone PetAquariums Perfect Home for a Clownfish to Live In?

We decided to include this section because there are approximately 1,000 sea anemones of which only 10 should be classified as clownfish hosts.

SEA ANEMONE:	COMPATIBLE CLOWNFISH:
Bulb Tentacle, Bubble Tip, Rose, or Maroon Sea Anemone	Red Saddleback Clownfish Red and Black Clownfish Barrier-Reef Clownfish Allard’s Clownfish Two-band Clownfish Orange-fin Clownfish Clark’s Clownfish Tomato Clownfish McCulloch’s Clownfish Oman Clownfish Australian Clownfish Three-band Clownfish Maroon Clownfish In Aquarium But Not in Wild: Ocellaris\False Percula clownfish
Corkscrew Tentacle, Long Tentacle Sea anemone	Mauritian Clownfish Clark’s Clownfish Pink Skunk Clownfish Saddleback Clownfish In Aquarium But Not in Wild: Maroon Clownfish
Adhesive, Sticky Carpet, or Pizza Sea Anemone	Clark’s Clownfish In Aquarium But Not in Wild: Tomato Clownfish Maroon Clownfish
Delicate, Sebae, Hawaiian, or White Sand Sean Anemone	Clark’s Clownfish In Aquarium But Not in Wild: Maroon Clownfish
Magnificent or Ritteri Sea Anemone	Clark’s Clownfish Ocellaris Clownfish Skunk Clownfish Barrier Reef Clownfish Two-band Clownfish Mauritian Clownfish Orange-fin Clownfish White-bonnet Clownfish Red and Black Clownfish Maldives Clownfish Percula Clownfish
Leathery or Sebae Sea Anemone	Three-Band Clownfish Percula Clownfish Barrier Reef Clownfish Two-band Clownfish Orange-fin Clownfish Clark’s Clownfish Red Saddleback Clownfish Wide-band Clownfish White-bonnet Clownfish Red and Black Clownfish Oman Clownfish Pink Skunk Clownfish Saddleback Clownfish Orange Skunk Clownfish
Beaded or Aurora Sea Anemone	Barrier Reef Clownfish Two-band Clownfish Allard’s Clownfish Mauritian Clownfish Orange-fin Clownfish Clark’s Clownfish Three-Band Clownfish
Gigantic or Giant Sea Anemone	Ocellaris Clownfish Clark’s Clownfish Barrier Reef Clownfish Two-band Clownfish Percula Clownfish Pink Skunk Clownfish Australian Clownfish
Haddon’s or Saddle Carpet Anemone	Clark’s Clownfish Barrier Reef Clownfish Mauritian Clownfish Orange-fin Clownfish Saddleback Clownfish Sebae Clownfish In Aquarium But Not in Wild: Ocellaris Clownfish Allard’s Clownfish Percula Clownfish
Merten’s Carpet Sea Anemone	Orange-fin Clownfish Skunk Clownfish Barrier Reef Clownfish Allard’s Clownfish Mauritian Clownfish Clark’s Clownfish Seychelles Clownfish Madagascar Clownfish White-bonnet Clownfish Ocellaris Clownfish Orange Skunk Clownfish Three-Band Clownfish