What links Clownfish to its Host

[M Woodhill]

Sorry for bein dummy, but i really wanna know the answer. longtime big fan of nemo and nem combo but this mystery has long bothered me

browsed few books at the library but failed to find any answers

in particular for those tank bred specimens, right guys, if they were born without their nems, how could they pick up their right ones

i had a number of tank bred occ's that only prefer gig and mag, how could they know that is right and the rest wrong?

 

[Tmoriarty]

Instinct. I guess it's the same as asking why clownfish fry swim to the top of the water even in the home tank, because that is what they instinctually do in the wild.

Same with dogs, Australian shepards, even born at home, instinctually herd... everything from balls to small children (I should know mine is a herder).

In the wild the anemone protects the clown from natural prey, and while they may not need that protection in our tanks, they still choose to associate simply out of the instinctual response encoded in them.

I am not a biology expert but I can't think of any other reason. I would also assume eash nem has its own (smell) and there is a good chance that certain clowns pick up instinctually on the smell of a natural host anemone before one that is not a natural host.