Interactions

A major mutualistic symbiotic relationship exists between this anemone fish and the anemones that these fish call home. The sea anemones that Amphirprion perideraion live within are of the Cnidarian family. The anemones have nematocysts on their tentacles that aid in the protection and capturing of prey that the both species in the mutualistic relationship. In return the clownfish actually protect the sea anemone by fighting off any predators that want to attack the anemone when they are vulnerable. Anemones are vulnerable when their tentacles have lost some of the nematocysts (Drury 2008). Not only is this relationship for protection, it has been recently discovered that the anemone fish actually benefit the anemone with gas and nutrient exchange as well  (Szczebak et al. 2013).

Since anemones have nematocysts, how in the world do these clownfish avoid the sting of the anemone that all other organisms encounter? The answer is actually that the clownfish coats itself with mucus, which allows the sea anemone to recognize its houseguest. In a way the mucus acts as a communication device so that the anemone doesn’t sting the fish (Winiarski 1997). How or where the mucus comes from is a complete mystery to many scientists and only hypotheses have been developed. All that is known for sure is that the mucus allows for this amazing symbiotic relationship (Winiarski 2008).

One of the most common interactions that a species encounters is between itself and its prey. This species of clownfish mainly feed on an organism named zooplankton (Sheppard et al. 2009). As pictured to the right, the organism is fairly small and is easily captured for the clownfish to eat. As talked about above, the anemone aids the fish in capturing their prey with the nematocyts and the fish can eat with no worry. Another important interation is between the clownfish and its predators in the ocean. Amphriprion perideraion belong to a group called Plantivores because of what they eat. Clownfish are eaten by a group called Piscivores (Sheppard 2009). This group is made up of many organisms that live in the ocean, including groupers, sharks, and barracudas. Great White Sharks and Great Barracudas are two of the predators that prey on clownfish. The Piscivores are well adapted to catch their small prey that live in the anemones. Many of the memebers of this group sit and stalk their prey, have large eyes, and are fast swimmers (Sheppard 2009).

There is such a large amount of diversity present on a coral reef that it is hard to distinguish exactly which organisms the one specific species of clownfish interact with. A lot of the well-known reef animals include multiple species of corals, sponges, many different fish species and of course the zooplankton of which the clownfish mainly feed on (Sheppard et al. 2009). This large diversity in one area of a coral reef makes it very difficult to distinguish between different species within the same genus however, the best known way is by looking at the individual fishes and organisms color patterns. Many species related to Amphirpion perideraion have very similar color patterns making it very difficult in the diversity of coral reef to see this individual species (Timm et al. 2008).

 

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