TankBud

Sebae clownfish

Amphiprion sebae

Also known as Sebae Anemonefish, Yellowtail Clownfish, Brown Clownfish

SaltwaterFish

Sebae clownfish (Amphiprion sebae)
Miles Wu from Princeton NJ, Newbury/Winchester UK, Limassol Cyprus, USA/United Kingdom / Cyprus · CC BY-SA 2.0

Care at a glance

Temperature
75–82°F
24–28°C
pH
8.1–8.4
Adult size
5.9 in
15 cm
Minimum tank
30 gal
115 L
Temperament
Mostly peaceful
Social behavior
Social
Swim level
Middle
Difficulty
Easy
Breeding
Hard
Rarity
Rare
Reef safe
Reef safe
Family
Pomacentridae
Origin
Northern Indian Ocean reefs, from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal and Sumatra

Overview

A generally calm clownfish that can turn semi-aggressive once it has claimed a territory, particularly toward other clownfish. It is reef safe and gets along with most fish and invertebrates, making it a solid pick for a reef tank. Best kept singly or as a bonded pair. It eats a wide range of prepared, frozen, and live foods and should be fed a couple of times a day.

In the wild

Lives on reefs of the northern Indian Ocean, from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal and Sumatra, with most aquarium trade specimens collected off Sri Lanka. It pairs primarily with the sebae anemone, and occasionally the saddle carpet anemone. In the aquarium it does not need a live anemone and will readily host in mushroom corals, frogspawn, or leather corals instead.

Good to know

Amphiprion sebae is a protandrous hermaphrodite, with the largest fish in a group becoming the breeding female and the next largest becoming her mate. It is a deep-bodied, dark brown to near-black fish with two angled white bars and a bright yellow to orange tail, and is one of the larger clownfish species kept in the hobby. Eggs are laid near the host and hatch in 6 to 11 days depending on temperature.

Did you know

For years many exporters mislabeled Clark's clownfish as Sebae clownfish, so a lot of hobbyists who believe they have kept this species actually had a different fish entirely.

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

Sebae 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 Sebae clownfish need?

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

What temperature and pH does a Sebae clownfish need?

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

How big does a Sebae clownfish get?

An adult Sebae clownfish reaches about 5.9 in (15 cm).

Related species