TankBud

Clark's clownfish

Amphiprion clarkii

Also known as Clarkii Clownfish, Yellowtail Clownfish, Clark's Anemonefish

SaltwaterFish

Clark's clownfish (Amphiprion clarkii)
Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0

Care at a glance

Temperature
75–82°F
24–28°C
pH
8.1–8.4
Adult size
5.5 in
14 cm
Minimum tank
30 gal
115 L
Temperament
Mostly peaceful
Social behavior
Social
Swim level
Middle
Difficulty
Easy
Breeding
Medium
Rarity
Common
Reef safe
Reef safe
Family
Pomacentridae
Origin
Indo-Pacific

Overview

A tough, adaptable clownfish that is larger and noticeably more assertive than ocellaris or percula. It is fine with most non-clownfish tankmates but grows territorial with age and will not tolerate other clownfish species, so keep it singly or as a mated pair. An unfussy eater that takes prepared, frozen, and live foods.

In the wild

One of the most wide-ranging clownfish, found on reefs and lagoons across a huge swath of the Indo-Pacific. It is famous for being the least fussy about anemone hosts, associating with more anemone species than any other clownfish. It occupies reef edges and rubble zones near its host.

Good to know

A. clarkii is highly variable in color across its enormous range, from mostly black with white bars to bright orange bodies, but almost always shows a distinctive yellow or white tail. Like all Amphiprion it is a protandrous hermaphrodite with a size-ranked social group topped by a single breeding female.

Did you know

Clark's clownfish will host a broader range of anemone species than any other clownfish, making it one of the easiest clowns to pair with whatever host anemone you can provide.

Symbiotic relationships

Clownfish and their host anemones

A clownfish lives inside an anemone that stings and eats other fish its size. Its mucus coat keeps the anemone's stinging cells from firing, and a new fish builds that protection up over hours of brief touches. The fish gets a refuge no predator will follow it into and a nest site at the anemone's base. The anemone gets a guard that drives off the butterflyfish that would graze its tentacles, a steady supply of nitrogen from the fish's waste, and water movement at night, when the fish fans its fins among the tentacles and the anemone takes up more oxygen. Only ten anemone species host clownfish in the wild, and each clownfish species uses its own short list of them.

Captive-bred clownfish have never seen an anemone and do not need one; they settle for a coral, a powerhead or a corner of the tank. If you want the pairing, the anemone is the harder animal by far and goes in first, into a mature tank with strong light and stable water, at the tank size its own profile lists. The bubble tip anemone is the hardy host, and the one most clownfish accept in captivity even when it is not a natural host, so a clownfish profile lists it as the usual tank host where that is the case. The sebae, magnificent and carpet anemones are marked difficult, and the carpets eat fish. Expect a paired clownfish to defend its anemone against everything else in the tank.

Every symbiotic relationship in the catalog

Weekly picks

Tank mates

Clark's clownfish is a mostly peaceful, social species that keeps to the middle. These picks share a community profile with it, are safe together in both directions, and overlap on water type, temperature and pH.

Check the full mix in the stocking calculator

Common questions

What size tank does a Clark's clownfish need?

A Clark's clownfish needs at least 30 gal (115 L). It spends most of its time in the middle.

What temperature and pH does a Clark's clownfish need?

A Clark's clownfish is comfortable at 75–82°F (24–28°C) with a pH of 8.1–8.4.

How big does a Clark's clownfish get?

An adult Clark's clownfish reaches about 5.5 in (14 cm).

Related species