ANEMONEFISHES

AMPHIPRION FRENATUS BREVOORT, 1856

Tomato Anemonefish

Original description: As Amphiprion frenatus, from specimens collected at Japan

Colour features and size: Adults with a single white head bar; females mainly blackish on sides with red snout, breast, belly, and fins; males considerably smaller than females and lacking blackish colouration -- being instead red overall; juveniles with two or three white bars. Maximum length about 140 mm.

Similar species: Amphiprion rubrocinctus (northwestern Australia) is very similar in colouration, but its white bar lacks the distinctive black outline of A. frenatus; the bar in females is poorly developed, has an irregular outline, and is sometimes discontinuous on top of the head; the smaller male generally has blackish sides. Small juveniles of A. frenatus and A. rubrocinctus are very difficult to separate; because they do not have overlapping distributions, geography is the best means of distinguishing them. Amphiprion melanopus (western Pacific) is also similar, but generally has a broader white head bar and specimens from most areas (except eastern Melanesia) have black pelvic and anal fins.

Host anemone: Entacmaea quadricolor

Melanistic variation: Only that related to sex as described above.

Distribution: South China Sea and immediately adjacent areas, northwards to Japan.

AMPHIPRION FUSCOCAUDATUS ALLEN, 1972

Seychelles Anemonefish

Original description: As Amphiprion fuscocaudatus, from specimens collected at the Seychelles Islands (northwestern Indian Ocean)

Colour features and size: Dark brown to blackish with three white bars; snout, breast, belly, and pelvic and anal fins yellow-orange; dorsal and caudal fins dusky brown to blackish. Maximum length about 140 mm.

Similar species: Amphiprion chrysogaster (Mauritius) is very similar in having three white bars and a dark caudal fin. However, the caudal fin of A. chrysogaster is uniformly dark except for a narrow white margin, whereas in A. fuscocaudatus, it has a dark central area at its base, with dark longitudinal streaks separated by lighter areas radiating from it.

Host anemone species: Stichodactyla mertensii

Distribution: Seychelles Islands and Aldabra in the western Indian Ocean.

AMPHIPRION LATEZONATUS WAITE, 1900

Wide-band Anemonefish

Original description: As Amphiprion latezonatus, from specimens collected at Lord Howe Island (southwestern Pacific Ocean)

Colour features and size: Dark brown with three white bars; mid-body bar extremely wide and shaped like flat-topped pyramid; caudal fin dark brown with broad, pale posterior margin. Maximum length about 140 mm.

Similar species: One of the most distinctive anemonefishes, Amphiprion latezonatus is unlikely to be confused with any other. Its mid-body bar is more than twice the width of this bar in most other species.

Host anemone species: Heteractis crispa

Distribution: Lord Howe Island off eastern Australia and rocky mainland reefs near the Queensland - New South Wales border.

AMPHIPRION LATIFASCIATUS ALLEN, 1972

Madagascar Anemonefish

Original description: As Amphiprion latifasciatus, from specimens collected at Madagascar

Colour features and size: Blackish with two white bars; snout, belly, and all fins, including tail, yellow; caudal fin slightly forked. Maximum length about 130 mm.

Similar species: Amphiprion bicinctus (Red Sea), A. allardi (East Africa), A. chrysopterus (western Pacific), and A. clarkii (Indo-West Pacific) have a similar colour pattern. The mid-body bar of A. latifasciatus is generally wider than in these species, and its caudal fin is forked rather than truncate to slightly emarginate. It further differs from A. chrysopterus and A. allardi (and most individuals of A. clarkii) in having a yellow rather than a white tail, and from most A. clarkii in lacking a white bar at the base of the caudal fin. Amphiprion omanensis (Arabian Sea) also has a forked caudal fin, but the midbody bar is much narrower (1 1/2 to 4 scales wide) and the pelvic and anal fins are black.

Host anemone species: Stichodactyla mertensii

Distribution: Madagascar and the Comoro Islands in the western Indian Ocean.

AMPHIPRION LEUCOKRANOS ALLEN, 1973

White-Bonnet Anemonefish

Original description: As Amphiprion leucokranos, from specimens collected at Madang, Papua New Guinea

Colour features and size: Orange to light brown with a large teardrop shaped white area on top of head and a single white bar on each side of head that may or may not be connected to the white area above it. Maximum length about 90 mm.

Similar species: Amphiprion sandaracinos is a similar colour, but lacks the white head bar and mark on top of the head, having, instead, a white mid-dorsal stripe extending from the snout along the spine to the base of the tail.

Host anemone species: Heteractis crispa; H. magnifica., Stichodactyla mertensii

Distribution: Northern Papua New Guinea, including Manus Island and New Britain, and the Solomon Islands

AMPHIPRION MCCULLOCHI WHITLEY, 1929

McCulloch's Anemonefish

Original description: As Amphiprion mccullochi, from specimens collected at Lord Howe Island (southwestern Pacific Ocean)

Colour features and size: Dark brown with whitish snout and caudal fin; white bar on each side of head usually not connected with each other on top of head in adults. Maximum length about 12 cm.

Similar species: Amphiprion melanopus (western Pacific) is similar, but has reddish coloured breast, belly, and dorsal fin, and the caudal fin is yellowish to slightly red. In addition, the white bars are interconnected over the top of the head.

Host anemone species: Entacmaea quadricolor

Distribution: Lord Howe Island off New South Wales, Australia, and nearby Norfolk Island.

AMPHIPRION MELANOPUS BLEEKER, 1852

Red and Black Anemonefish

Original description: As Amphiprion melanopus, from specimens collected at Ambon (Molucca Islands, Indonesia)

Colour features and size: Adults usually black on sides with reddish snout, belly, dorsal fin, and tail (sometimes pale yellow); pelvic and anal fins usually black; a single relatively broad white bar on head. Some individuals from the Coral Sea lack head bar; fish from the Fiji Islands and southeastern Polynesia entirely red except for white head bar; those from the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia have reduced black patch on the side. Maximum length about 120 mm.

Similar species: In the normal adult colouration, the black pelvic and anal fins easily distinguish A. melanopus from the other single-barred, red-finned species, A. frenatus (South China Sea to Japan) and A. rubrocinctus (northwestern Australia). However, Fijian and southeastern Polynesian specimens are readily confused with the red males of A. frenatus. The best means of separation is the pronounced black border on the margins (particularly the rear one) of the white head bar in A. frenatus, which is lacking in A. melanopus.

Host anemone species: Usually Entacmaea quadricolor; occasionally Heteractis crispa; rarely H. magnifica

Melanistic variation: None except variation between "normal" dark colour phase and red "Fijian" phase noted above.

Distribution: Indonesia (Bali westward), Melanesia, Micronesia, southeastern Polynesia, and Great Barrier Reef - Coral Sea.

AMPHIPRION NIGRIPES REGAN, 1908

Maldives Anemonefish

Original description: As Amphiprion nigripes, from specimens collected at the Maldive Islands

Colour features and size: Pale orange brown with narrow white head bar; belly, pelvic fins, and anal fin black. Maximum length about 110 mm.

Similar species: No other species in the Indian Ocean except A. perideraion (eastern Indian and western Pacific Oceans) has only one white bar; A. nigripes is easily separated from it and all other anemonefishes by the combination of the single white bar and black belly, pelvic fins, and anal fins.

Host anemone species: Heteractis magnifica

Distribution: Maldive Islands and Sri Lanka in the central Indian Ocean.

AMPHIPRION OCELLARIS CUVIER, 1830

False Clown Anemonefish

Original description: As Amphiprion ocellaris, from specimens collected at Sumatra (an island of Indonesia)

Colour features and size: Normally bright orange with three white bars, the middle one with forward-projecting bulge; bars have narrow black margins. Maximum length about 90 mm.

Similar species: Amphiprion percula (northern Queensland and Melanesia) is nearly identical, but has 10 (rarely 9) dorsal spines compared to 11 (rarely 10) in A. ocellaris; the spinous (anterior) part of the dorsal fin in A. ocellaris is taller (its height fits about 2.1-2.9 in the head length compared to 3.1-3.3 in A. percula). Distributions of these two species do not overlap.

Host anemone species: Heteractis magnifica; Stichodactyla gigantea; S. mertensii.

Melanistic variation: A variety that is entirely black except for the white bars occurs in the vicinity of Darwin, Australia. Whether this melanism is correlated with a particular species of anemone is uncertain.

Distribution: Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Andaman Sea), Indo-Malayan Archipelago, Philippines, northwestern Australia; coast of Southeast Asia northwards to the Ryukyu Islands.

AMPHIPRION OMANENSIS ALLEN AND MEE, 1991

Oman Anemonefish

Original description: As Amphiprion omanensis from specimens collected at Oman (described in Allen, 1991)

Colour features and size: Body medium to dark brown, head lighter (very pale tannish on snout and chin); two white bars, the head bar usually constricted on forehead, midbody bar narrow, about 1 1/2-4 scales wide; dorsal fin brown to tan; caudal fin tan to whitish, pelvic and anal fins black, pectoral fins yellowish.

Similar species: The combination of a strongly forked caudal fin and black pelvic and anal fins is distinctive. The only other species with a forked caudal fin is A. latifasciatus from Madagascar and the Comoro Islands. However, it has a much wider midbody bar, usually about 10 scales wide.

Host anemone species: Entacmaea quadricolor, Heteractis crispa

Distribution: Oman, Arabian Peninsula