Courting a Clownfish

What must you do to court a clownfish? Assuming of course you wanted to court a clownfish?

Finding Nemo and Finding Dory made two fishes into world-wide celebrities - Clownfish and Blue Tang, not that they know or care. Except ever so often after those movies came out, the fish found themselves scooped up from their cozy reef crevices and put into tiny aquariums. Not only were the clownfish taken out of their reef, they were taken out of their precious sea anemones, which were their real homes...

Yes.

Another depressing fact: Approximately 90% of aquarium fish are 'pilfered' from reefs.

This happened world-wide... to an extent that their numbers have dropped significantly.

That is the price of becoming a celebrity in the human world, I suppose.

You lose your freedom and your privacy. You might lose your home too, be forced to live in a restricted space with limited movement. You will be stared at wherever you go and whatever you do. Try courting and breeding in the public under artificial lights and in fake ocean water.

When a male clownfish wants to show he is ready to mate, he quivers and lays on his side.

That's what the he must do to court the female clownfish.

That's all the female wants, apparently.

Now try to quiver romantically and lay on your side while under bright aquarium lights. Can you? Can I? Can anyone? Not sure a male could do a satisfying job of this and that's all the poor female wants.

So, anyway... to the surprise of no one... the numbers of clownfish are falling rapidly.

Here are a few fun facts about clownfish (before we love and gather them to extinction)...

Approximately thirty different types of clownfish (reddish, orange, black, even pink!) exist in our oceans - in Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean, and the Great Barrier Reef.

Did you know clownfish have a happy working relationship with sea anemones? Watch this fascinating National Geographic video to see how clownfish interact and live (and love) the sea anemone’s tentacles. Check this article from Aquarium of the Pacific that gives us great information. See the PBS video where the clownfish frolic within the sea anemone tentacles.

Clownfish have great mutually beneficial working relationship with sea anemones... both the clownfish and sea anemones provide a wide range of benefits for each other. For instance, clownfish live within the sea anemone tentacles and its stings gives the clownfish protection while the nitrogen from the feces of the clownfish fertilizes the sea anemone. Moreover, the clownfish swim in a way that alters the water circulation around the sea anemones and this benefits the metabolism and the respiration of both clownfish and sea anemones. Finally, a few of the dead tentacles of the sea anemones are a good and safe 'nest' for the clownfish.

The last video we have listed is one of the best as it narrates a host of other amazing facts that are even more fascinating than the clownfish partnership with the sea anemone, like how they change genders from male to female.

The most interesting bit about clownfish is that they develop into males FIRST... then, as they mature, they become females. If the biggest female dies for any reason, the biggest male is next in line. One day, the clownfish is a big male and the next day, after the death of the big female, it's an oops moment! The male clownfish must turn into a big female.

Until yesterday, he had to quiver and flop on his side if he wanted to mate.

Now he must... lay eggs.

Talk about a balancing act.

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