(Image credit: Ian Shaw)

The Spine-cheek Clownfish is a bright red-brown anemonefish with three narrow white-to-grey bands on the head and body and a large rearward-facing spine on the gill cover running from the rear of the eye to the first white stripe. Spine-cheek Clownfish are protandrous hermaphrodites, with all individuals starting out as males and turning into females, and males are 2-3 times smaller and more brightly coloured than females.

Length: to 17cm

Habitat

Reef associated. Lives symbiotically with sea anemones.

Log it

Log it south of Cairns In QLD

Related links/info

Species names on the Redmap site are based on the Codes for Australian Aquatic Biota or CAAB (http://www.cmar.csiro.au/caab/). This is updated regularly and lists the approved common name, family, species name and more.

Redmap species descriptions were based, with permission, on the following resources:

http://fishesofaustralia.net.au/home/species/378; http://reeflifesurvey.com/species/premnas-biaculeatus/

Fishes of Australia; Froese & Pauly 2017; Catalogue of Life; CAAB; Stuart-Smith et al. 2015; Reef Life Survey; Australian Faunal Directory.