anemone fish

A clown fish (Amphiprion percula), one of the anemone fishes, sheltering among the tentacles of a sea anemone. Although touching the stinging cells (nematocysts) located on the sea anemone's tentacles may be fatal to many other organisms, anemone fishes are unaffected by them.

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anemone fish, (genus Amphiprion), any of about 30 species of Indo-Pacific fishes constituting the genus Amphiprion of the family Pomacentridae (order Perciformes), noted for their association with large sea anemones. Anemone fishes live and shelter among the tentacles of the anemones, swimming in and out unharmed by the stinging cells (nematocysts) that are present on the tentacles and that can be fatal to other fishes. A representative species, common in the Indo-Australian archipelago, is A. percula, also called the orange clown fish. Bright orange, with three wide, blue-white bands circling the body, it grows to a length of about five centimetres (two inches).