A big thanks to Khun Vie Panyarachun from Thailand who was the first person to send us an answer for our mystery clownfish. Khun Vie recalled an article he had read previously in Asian Diver that had a photo similar to this fish, which was identified by Gerald Allen of the Western Australian Museum as a juvenile Clark’s anemonefish (Amphiprion clarkii).

After many subsequent emails zipping around the world and many possible IDs bandied around, we received independent confirmation from Dr. Luiz Rocha, who works at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, and is an avid underwater photographer and a moderator on Wetpixel.

He sent us this photo of a juvenile A. clarkii in Guam taken by renowned ichthyologist Dr. Jack Randall Note the elongated dark pelvic fins, which match the ones in our little video.

Gerry Allen was also kind enough to drop us a note from the Philippines to confirm that juvenile clownfish of this species can have greatly exaggerated pelvic fins.

It’s amazing that so many people dive, yet so few recognised this as a normal juvenile fish.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 17th, 2007 at 7:02 pm and is filed under Critters, FiNS News.