1 Clownfish, 1 False Clownfish, and a whole bunch of anemonefish

[deangelr]

Just thought I would throw out there that the 'clown anemonefish' refers to Amphiprion percula, the 'false clown anemonefish' refers to amphiprion ocellaris..


Its easy to see why these two species of anemonfishes would have the term 'clown' to describe them.. but the rest don't look much at all like clowns..

So what exactly are clownfish and where/how did the term end up encompassing all of the anemonefishes?

 

[CoralsAddiction]

Don't know where the generalization came from but Jonathan Bird agrees with your sentiment. Here's his video about clowns and his narration calls the Ocellaris as clownfish. He refers to the rest as anemonefishes. The most fascinating part of the video to me is watching Magnifica anemone take down a damsel. Never seen anemone predation in the wild before.
http://youtu.be/Bu61keYuGb0