Orange Clownfish| All You Need To Know

Orange clownfish is also known as percula clownfish or clown anemonefish. Like other polyp fishes, orange clownfish live in attachment with sea anemones.

Although the species of orange clownfish are famous, preserving these species in captivity is complicated.

The symbiosis relationship between anemonefish and anemones is based on the existence of clownfish that bring out the most fish towards the anemones.

The anemone helps the fish by protecting it from predators, including wrasses, damselfish, and breakable stars. The fish helps the anemone to bring other fish to feed it.

Description:

The orange clownfish reach up to 11 cm in size, with three white lines extended throughout their orange bodies. Both sexes don’t have any color differences. Behind the eyes, a white bar is present, the middle line is located at the middle of the fish’s body, and the posterior bar is along the caudal fin.

Besides white lines, each fin is also designed with black edging outlines.

The ocellaris clownfish and the orange clownfish are two different types. The most popular way to tell the difference is that orange clownfish has ten spinal columns in the first dorsal fins. On the contrary, Ocellaris clownfish contain 11 spinal columns. It does not have black lines around the fins.

Habitat: Orange Clownfish

Orange clownfish are coral reef fish that inhabit the host anemone and are found in the warmer water of the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Both clownfish and polyps reside in shallow water with a 12m depth, and water temperature changes from 25 to 28 degrees.

Host anemones living on the sandbar are typically inhabited by only one anemonefish because it is a competition; when they populate one type of anemone, they leave out others. The two anemonefish show aggressiveness towards one another while trying to live with the same host anemone.

If primary hosts are absent, then secondary hosts are commonly just used. When different types of anemonefishes live in comparable conditions, they prefer to expand by tiny microhabitats and obtainable types of anemones.

Orange clownfish generally live in those host anemones that are present near the coast; on the contrary, false clownfish reside with those polyps which are more offshore. You can also read the interesting article about the water dog fish here.

Reproduction:

The orange clownfish live in warmer water; they can reproduce all year. All the groups of these fish have a reproducing system and four nonbreeders. Each group has a diameter-based hierarchy.

They show protandry, which means that every clownfish is born male. If a female dies, it changes into a female.

The reproduction cycle is linked to the lunar cycle. At night, the moon maintains awareness of clownfish and enhances the interaction between both sexes. Before mating, the male attracts the female.

In this attraction, biting the female, extending the fins, and chasing her. The nest is necessary for the continuity of the eggs. The females produce 400 to 1500 eggs in each cycle based on their size. Unlike other non-reproductives in a few animal groups, they may not get rare breeding opportunities because their gonads do not function as usual.

They do not think about subordinates in their nest, thinking that their presence cannot increase the sexual victory of the breeders. Studies show that they are just going toward the areas where breeders live.

Development of orange clownfish:

Orange clownfish developed quickly after fertilizing eggs; they hatched within 6 to 7 days. After hatching, the larvae are too small and sink to the bottom of the water and then move upwards. They spend a week drifting among plankton and are carried by oceanic waves.

When it reaches the bottom, the larval stage ends up. Only in one day they changed into juveniles. In this stage, clownfish need a host anemone. When they find a host, they use their particular chemicals.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, orange clownfish are beautiful creatures that captivate viewers’ attention. They live in warmer water and shelter reefs.

Orange clownfish eat algae and small invertebrates and the remaining particles of food left by anemones. They communicate with each other by producing poop and clicking noises.

Orange clownfish are not hunted for eating; these are popular for the fish tank trade. House aquarists usually kept this type of tank.