ABOUT

If you’ve ever seen the movie Finding Nemo, you probably already know a bit about clownfish. Nemo made these tiny, bright-colored fish very famous and the movie showed a lot of the interesting facts about them like how the males are the primary caretakers of the babies; the females only help out sometimes. But there’s even more cool things about clownfish. For example, did you know that they talk with each other? They may not speak in words like we do, but clownfish make popping and clicking noises to communicate with each other. But perhaps the coolest thing about clownfish is that they are immune to the poison of sea anemone. That means that the poison doesn’t hurt them like it does other fish. Scientists don’t know exactly how clownfish are protected, but they seem to have a friendship with the anemone where they help each other out. Because of their bright colors, the clownfish attract other fish close to the reefs where the anemone live. The anemone then kill these other fish with their poison and eat them and then the clownfish get to eat, too, by nibbling on the leftover pieces. The clownfish also help the anemone grow by fertilizing them with their fish poop! Seriously!

IN TROUBLE

You might be surprised to hear about one of the biggest threats to clownfish. Of course pollution and
climate change is hurting all ocean and sea life but clownfish are threatened by people who want to
keep them as pets! They are so cute and colorful lots of people thought it would be “cool” to have them
in their aquariums at home. Because of this, 15 to 30% of the world’s clownfish population was lost.

HOW TO HELP

Nemo didn’t want to live in a fish tank in the movie Finding Nemo and real clownfish don’t want that
either! We can protect clownfish by letting them live in their natural setting. If you want to see a
clownfish, it’s better to look at pictures and videos of them online instead. And don’t forget! If we
protect clownfish, we are helping to protect the sea anemone that need the clownfish, too!