Facts About the Clown Fish

Ever since the movie, Finding Nemo, people have been going crazy for clown fish. Check out these facts on one of the ocean's coolest creatures.

What is a Clown Fish?

There are 28 species of clown fish. They are orange, yellow, maroon and many other colors. The most common clown fish - and the one that looks most like Nemo - is the percula clown fish which is bright orange with white stripes. Clown fish are between two and five inches long.

Where Do Clown Fish Live?

Clown fish live on the ocean floor. They are found in the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean and Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

Who are the Friends of the Clown Fish?

Clown fish and anemones hang out all the time and help each other out. Anemones are fish-eating animals that look like underwater flowers and have hundreds of poisonous tentacles. Clown fish find most of their food by mooching off the anemone. Clown fish wait until the anemone paralyzes and eats a fish, then helps itself to the bits which the anemone doesn't eat. Clown fish avoid being harmed by the anemones by swimming a funky dance around the anemone's poisonous tentacles. Clowns allow the tentacles to graze their bodies until they build up an immunity to the poison. In exchange for getting food from the anemones, the clown fish clean the anemones by eating dead tentacles. Clowns also protect anemones from predators.

To find out what kinds of enemies the clown fish has and how you can properly care for a clown fish, click here.

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