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This brightly-colored fish is orange with three white vertical
stripes; the rounded fins have black margins. The clown fish
grows to be about 2 to 5 inches long. |
Clown fish, also called the Clown Anemonefish, are small fish
that live among anemone (fish-eating animals that look like
undersea flowers and have hundreds of poisonous tentacles).
The anemone's tentacles kill other fish that touch them, but
the clown fish seems to be immune to its poison. Scientists
think that the clown fish may be coated with a mucous that
protects it from the poison. The anemone protects the clown
fish from most predators, who know not to go near the
anemone's tentacles. The clown fish helps the anemone by
cleaning it and perhaps by scaring away predators of the
anemone. |
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Diet:
Clown fish eat the anemone's leftovers. It waits until the
anemone paralyzes and eats a fish, then helps itself to bits
that the anemone leaves uneaten. It also eats dead anemone
tentacles and plankton.
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Habitat
and Shelter:
The
clown fish lives on the sea floor amid anemone tentacles. It
inhabits the warm waters of the tropical Pacific Ocean, the
Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
It does not live near Georgia or Georgia's coast. |
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Predators:
Clown fish are little fish so they have lots of enemies like
sharks. Humans are the worst predators for clown fish. Lots of
people take clown fish from their homes in the ocean and bring
them to pet stores or take them home for an aquarium. |
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