Clownfish — Finding Dory · 173

A group is a female, a breeding male and non-breeders. If the female dies, the male changes sex. The film missing-mother plot skipped that rule. Several trade analyses reported a demand spike after 2003. Captive-bred ocellaris later absorbed much of the legal market in the US and EU.

The fish mucus lacks the cues that trigger nematocysts, and acclimation behaviour matters. It is not a cartoon handshake. Fish may linger on a dying anemone and then vanish from that site. Reef heatwaves are a housing crisis for the genus. Are clownfish good parents in the film sense?

Males tend the nest of demersal eggs. The biology is paternal care, not a transoceanic search. Eastern Indian and western Pacific reefs -- Andaman to the Philippines and Australia north -- not a Sydney Harbour suburban anemone. Captive-bred ocellaris cut some wild take. It does not rebuild bleached hosts or stop cyanide fishing of other reef species sold beside them.