Animals

The March of the Red Crab
A Moth Find a New Home
Suicidal Birds
A leopard and A cheetah
The Spectacular Hornbill
The Antelope with an extraordinary nose
Masquerading Males
Tiny But Powerful
Electric Fishes
Paternal Care
Hairless Cat
Passionate Parrot
Calling Out To Mother
Hot Wheels
Discs On Their Wings
Two-humped Camels
Frozen Frog
Silken Chambers
Earth Pig
Swordsman of the Sea
The Ostrich Trick
Electrifying Meal
Bizarre Turtle
Grey Whales
The Flying Lemur
The Winged Fishing Creature
Llamas
A Different Sort of a Parrot
The Tailless Cat
The Ancestor Of The Rhino
Acquisitive Wood Rats
The Butterflyfish
The Amazing Jumper
The Largest Deer
The Devil’s Coach-Horse
The Porcupine With A Prehensile Tail
The Irritating Fencing
The Acrobatic Otter
The Busy Termite Colony
Superb Mimics
The Canary
Snow Monkey
Jumping Spiders
Glass Lizard
Beetle Rhino
The World’s Smallest Bear
Hygienic Ants
Flat as a Pancake
The Carpet Shark
The Centipede Walk

Go to page: 1  2 

Waiting in Queue

Clownfishes are reef-dwelling, brightly-coloured fish that live in groups among sea anemones. Clownfish larvae live in the plankton. When they mature they must find an anemone —
within its tentacles are food, shelter and a place to breed. They themselves are immune to the stinging tentacles, protected by a special mucus coating on their skins.
Each anemone contains a dominant breeding pair and up to four smaller, subordinate fish. The biggest fish is always a female about 65 mm long. Clownfish change their sex as well as size as they move up the social ladder.
A young fish looking for a home has to contend with those already living in the anemone. Many times, a newcomer is chased away, especially if it is similar in size.

Researcher Peter Buston of Cornell University, New York, who studied clownfish living on coral reefs in Papua New Guinea, discovered that newcomers limit their growth so as not to displease the resident fishes. If a resident fish dies or leaves, smaller fish put on a growth spurt to take its place. Buston found that no fish ever jumped the queue or left the anemone. They just waited for their chance.

---

Last updated on :9/10/2004