Clown+Fish

//Clown Fish (Amphiprion Ocellaris)//

The Clown Fish is often found in Tropical Coral Reefs. They use the sea anemone for shelter, which also provides protection for them and their offspring. The female clown fish would lay her eggs on a flat surface such as the rocks that are usually near the sea anemone and the male would build a nest on the rock for the female to lay her eggs. The male would then protect and guard the eggs until they hatch, which would be within 4-5 days.
 * Domain || Eukaryote ||
 * Kingdom || Animalia ||
 * Phylum || Chordata ||
 * Class || Actinopterxgii ||
 * Order || Perciformes ||
 * Family || Pomacentridae ||
 * Genus || Amphiprion ||
 * Species || Ocellaris ||


 * = [[image:922011221738948.jpg width="148" height="117"]] ||= [[image:Oceans-Clownfish.jpg width="171" height="116"]] ||= [[image:clownfish.jpg width="172" height="118"]] ||
 * = Clown fish can be found in many different colors and different shapes ||

__Habitats__
Clown Fish are native to warmer waters of the Indian and Pacific Ocean, including the Great Barrier Reef and the Red Sea. Usually in pairs, Clown Fish live in shallow reefs and sheltered lagoons. Sea Anemone is a mutual effect to the Clown Fish. The Clown Fish helps the Sea Anemone by eating the algae and other types of food on them. This cleans the Sea Anemone and helps it stay healthy. The Sea Anemone protects the Clown Fish from predators, so both the Clown Fish and the Sea Anemone gives each other positive effects on one another.



__Physiology__
Clown Fish are small fishes that have its body size up to 80 millimeters maximum. They have ten doral spines. Clown Fish fins are unique compared to other marine mammals because its fins point up and down unlike other marine mammals whohas fins to its side. They have hard coverings to cover their gills for protections. They also have a unique mucous around their body which allows them to be in the sea anemone to use as its home. This is a mutual effect to the Clown Fish and the Sea Anemone.



__Species Interactions__
Clown Fish has mucous around their body which allows them to stay protected and use Sea Anemones as shelter to their home. This a mutualistic symbiosis method for the Clown Fish and the Sea Anemone to live in a positive effect from each other. Clown Fish leaves off crumbs of its meals which allows Sea Anemones to feed off of. The Clown Fish also cleans the Sea Anemone by feeding on algae around the Sea Anemone.

__Reproduction__
Clown Fish has a possibility of being both male and female. The largest most dominant fish of the group can go into a sex change and become female while the second largest fish usually becomes a breeding male. After the Clown Fish breed and the eggs are laid. The male usually take care and watch over the eggs. The female Clown Fish would then check the eggs and see if the male Clown Fish had done a good job. If the male Clown Fish does a good job the female would stay with him for a long time, if he doesn't do a good job he would have to leave the Sea Anemone and find new mate. ==

__Free Topic__== Clown Fish habitats and the gives symbiosis relationship with the anemone in the wild. There are nine different anemones that can help be identified by scientists. The Clown Fish is also famously known throughout the world thanks to the movie "Finding Nemo" directed by Walt Disney.

__Works Cited__
"Clown Fish." wikipedia.org. Wikipedia, n.d. Web. 30 Mar 2011