by Tammy L Mahan

Created on: June 10, 2010

The Allard’s Clown fish (Amphipirion Allardi) is also commonly called the Two Bar anemone fish. This species of Clown fish was first discovered in 1970. Their natural habitat is on the eastern coast of Africa between Durban and Kenya. They can be found at a depth of ten to eighty-two feet in the lagoons and the reefs.

The Allard’s Clown fish is a small fish making it ideal for aquariums. An adult Allard’s Clown fish reaches between 4.5 and 4.8 inches in length. An adult Allard’s Clown fish can be recognized by it’s stripes. The stripes on it’s fins are black and yellow. They are wide towards the middle of the fin and they point forward at the bottom of the fin. The body color of this Clown fish ranges from a light yellow to black.

The Allard’s Clown fish is not a picky eater. Although maintaining a healthy well-balanced diet of fresh food, frozen food, flakes, and plant life in a variety of food sources will keep the fish healthy. They should be fed twice a day and will eat for approximately three to five minutes.

This species requires a fifty to sixty gallon aquarium. They enjoy a reef aquarium as they are used to reefs in their natural habitat.

Clown fish are usually kept with a host anemone. An anemone is a protector of sorts for Clown fish. They are non-mobile, have several tentacles which contain a toxic poison that affect the neurological system of any animal that tries to pray on it. The Clown fish and anemone are like best friends, the Clown fish is not affect by the poisonous tentacles. The anemone helps the Clown fish by providing a place for it to “live” all safe and comfy. The Clown fish provides the anemone with its’ food. The anemone eats the food particularly that Clown fish pick up while swimming in the aquarium or brushing up against plant life or the reefs.

The Clown fish can reproduce any time of the year. A “courting ritual” takes place by the male, he bites and chases her around the aquarium. The male is responsible for building a nest for the eggs and keeping them safe. The eggs hatch in four to five days, which is somehow connected to the moon phases.

A few interesting facts about Clown fish are, they seem to thrive to better as a pair while both live inside the host anemone. When Clown fish are born they are all males, when they mature completely they become females. The largest female is the most aggressive and therefore the leader. Oddly enough, Clown fish do not swim very well, they kind of float and frolic in the water.

The Allard’s Clown fish is a beautiful and very rare species. For this reason, breeding is very popular and profitable.

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