Читать книгу Diving Indonesia Periplus Adventure Guid онлайн

86 страница из 170

Clownfish and their Sea Anemone Hosts

There is perhaps no sight more charming than a pair of bright clownfishes nestled in one of the colorful giant reef anemones. Although known to possess powerful stinging cells, the anemones clearly don't harm the clownfishes, which look downright snug tucked into the soft tentacles of their host.

The colorful magnificent anemone, one of the largest clown-fish anemones.

The relationship between the fish and the actinian is commensal; the anemonefishes clearly benefit, receiving protection for themselves and their offspring. They even pluck at the tentacles and oral disk of the anemone, eating the organic material that has collected there.

The benefit to the anemone is less clear. The constant prodding, cleaning and stimulation provided by the fishes certainly seems enjoyable, but this maybe just to us. Anemonefishes are never found without anemones; anemones, however, are sometimes found without the fish.

A Delicate Operation

It had been thought that clown-fishes were somehow immune to the anemone's stinging nematocysts. Close observations, however, have shown this not to be the case. The fish, through a series of brief—and careful— encounters with the actinian, picks up a substance in its mucous that the anemone recognizes as its own. The nematocysts don't fire when touched by the fish for the same reason one tentacle doesn't sting another.