Photo of the day

A close cousin of corals, sea anemones live attached to the surface of reefs or rocks. Sea anemones are famous for their positive symbiotic relationship with clownfish. For today’s photo, we went with the iconic orange clownfish popularized by the film “Finding Nemo,” but in fact, clownfish come in all sorts of colors, including pink, red, yellow, black, brown, and multicolored and striped. The way this relationship works is that the sea anemone offers protection and shelter to the clownfish, while the clownfish lets the anemone snack on scraps from its meals. Thanks to a mucus layer, clownfish aren’t affected by the sting of sea anemones, so the two animals really are a perfect match! What’s even more noteworthy is that only ten types of anemone house clownfish, and each type is only compatible with a specific clownfish species.