Amphiprion rubrocinctus Richardson, 1842

Open encyclopedia reference

Amphiprion rubrocinctus, also known as the Australian clownfish or red anemonefish, is a species of anemonefish that is endemic to north west Australia. Like all anemonefishes it forms a symbiotic mutualism with sea anemones and is unaffected by the stinging tentacles of the host anemone. It is a sequential hermaphrodite with a strict sized based dominance hierarchy: the female is largest, the breeding male is second largest, and the male non-breeders get progressively smaller as the hierarchy descends. They exhibit protandry, meaning the breeding male will change to female if the sole breeding female dies, with the largest non-breeder becomes the breeding male. The fish's natural diet includes zooplankton.

Wikipedia contributors, Australian clownfish; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T18:59:53.991069+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Amphiprion rubrocinctus Richardson, 1842

Name authority

Richardson, 1842

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Teleostei

Family

Pomacentridae

Genus

Amphiprion

Extinction status

Not supplied by this source

Source habitat flags: Marine: yes · Freshwater: no · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. gigaclassActinopterygii
8. superclassActinopteri
9. classTeleostei
10. familyPomacentridae Bonaparte, 1831
11. genusAmphiprion Bloch & Schneider, 1801
12. speciesAmphiprion rubrocinctus Richardson, 1842

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Amphiprion. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 338 records assigned to Pomacentridae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. Richardson, J. (1842). Contributions to the ichthyology of Australia. [Continued from p. 218.]. Annals and Magazine of Natural History (New Series), v. 9 (no. 59) (art. 42): 384–393. Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:D56D. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.