Talk:Clownfish

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"Some environmental protection activists regard this as a catastrophe as the species [...]." That makes no sense, since the clownfish are a subfamily, not a species. What did the author refer to? The whole subfamily, or just one of the species of the subfamily? If it's a species, then which one of all?

Contents 1 Reproduction and Sex Change 2 Capitalization 3 Remarks by Dr. Mike Arvedlund 4 Tomato clownfish, red saddleback anemonefish, fire clownfish 5 Commonwealth spelling 6 Atlantic 7 Clownfish or anemonefish

[edit] Reproduction and Sex Change

I am a biological scientist working with sex changing fish. I also have some experience raising clownfish. I really like this wikipedia article. I added some information and removed a word in a sentence which said that the fish ate the "undigested excrement" from the anemone. If its undigested, it is probably not excrement! I believe the writer meant undigested food particles that the anemone released. I will add more when I have a bit more time. I want to include a bit more about the clownfish behavior and its reproduction in captivity. I also think that this article should link to an article about marine ornamental aquaculture, which has yet to be written.--Reefpicker (talk) 21:39, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Capitalization

Is there a reason for the word "clownfish" to be capitalized? It seems like most of the occurrences in the first section are and most in the second section aren't. I'd tend towards not capitalizing it (do we capitalize "dog"?), and I'll make those edits in a couple days if there's no objection here. cluth 11:17, July 17, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Remarks by Dr. Mike Arvedlund

The text about anemonefishes and clownfishes is a very good beginning but are currently (19 December 2005) not up to any particularly high standard. E.g. the text about how anemonefishes are protected from the host is biased and only mentions one out of several hypotheses. A popular summary of many recent findings within biology and ecology is not present. The whole page about anemonefishes needs a major revision. I will get back with some suggestions when I can find some time. Dr. Mike Arvedlund (michaelarvedlund@hotmail.com).

Hi Mike, A quick google search seems to indicate that you know a lot more about this subject than most of us. In case you don't know, you can - and are greatly encouraged - directly edit the article. You may want to register first, but it is not required. Janderk 17:23, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

I have read many hypotheses and will have to dig through some of the papers to cite some of the research. I agree with Dr. Arvedlund. The consensus from what I remember was either an immunity to specific host anemones or anemones in general, rather than the theory about the protection of mucous secreted after stimulation from the nematocysts of the anemone. Esoxid (talk) 04:32, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Tomato clownfish, red saddleback anemonefish, fire clownfish

The binomial names of tomato clownfish and red saddleback anemonefish fish did not match the consensus of net sources. I have fixed them. The fire clownfish seems to be the same as cinnamon clownfish; if so, the articles should be merged.
Jorge Stolfi/Jorge Stolfi 13:21, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

I agree with the fire clownfish and the cinammon clownfish merge. The cinnamon clownfish says on the first line, also known as the fire clownfish...Sidious1701 03:25, 28 February 2006 (UTC) what are the predators?

[edit] Commonwealth spelling

I've changed the word 'behavior' to 'behaviour' as all other words in this article are commonwealth English.

[edit] Atlantic

Is this true: "Clownfish are not found in the Atlantic Ocean."? Manuel Anastácio 23:34, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Clownfish or anemonefish

I was under the impression that the proper name for these fish was anemonefish as a subfamily and that two of these species were named clownfish. Specifically, clown anemone fish and false clown anemone fish. The orange one with white stripes with a black shading being the clown anemone fish, and the same orange and white stripes without the black shading being the false clown anemone fish (The one made famous by Nemo). Is there a general consensus that all anemonefish are now known as clownfish as a subfamily? Jnpet 05:13, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

My interest in this has caused me to look into this further and I find different sources seem to vary considerably in naming fish. From what I understand, Wikipedia is going with http://www.fishbase.org/search.php as the authority on the official English names. At any rate, will look into this further and may do some editing accordingly to this article. Jnpet 07:43, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

Common names can be very regional in usage, so it is good practice to use scientific names when writing about them. For example, Jnpet was talking about the common clown or false clown (Amphiprion occelaris) and the Percula (A. percula). There are 28 species of anenome fish, and they are all referred to as clownfish in common usage. The common clown and percula are virtually impossible to distinguish in a picture. The melanistic markings (the black) can appear in either species. In the wild they have different host anenomes but that is not true in the aquarium. They swim a bit differently, and I have seen percula larger than I have seen common clowns, so if you have seen a bunch of clownfish you can generally tell, but not always. Counting the spines on the dorsal fins or DNA tests help, but are impracticle (and the spines are not always conclusive). Nature made two species that are twins. I am quite fond of clowns and plan to update this article soon to be more accurate. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 170.3.8.253 (talk) 15:28, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

I agree using fishbase as a good source, but http://www.itis.gov is the source used by the US Park Service for verified data. Fishbase is good because it will list the different available taxonomic names that other countries might use, as well as common names. Esoxid (talk) 04:38, 25 January 2008 (UTC)