The description in this piece is true, and much more accurate than a certain movie. Clownfish really do all start life as male, and the dominant male becomes female when the situation becomes vacant. It's called "protandry". (Wrasse all start life as female, "protogyny", and some become male, but they can go back from male to female if all the females disappear. Life is amazing in its variety and complexity.)
Aside from the six or seven days that the male clownfish spends fanning the eggs to circulate water around them, there is no parental involvement. The larvae (not fish, yet) spend a week or so drifting in currents, eating plankton, and only a tiny percentage will survive to reach another reef to mature into adults. Clownfish lay their eggs at a full moon, and it is believed that the light of the gibbous moon helps guide the larvae to the surface.
Regal blue tangs live 20 years, and clownfish for less than six. I got really sad about Dory and Marlin when I found that out :(
I would totally watch a Disney movie that involved a parental sex change. Not so sure about the incest, but it is fish we are talking about.
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Aside from the six or seven days that the male clownfish spends fanning the eggs to circulate water around them, there is no parental involvement. The larvae (not fish, yet) spend a week or so drifting in currents, eating plankton, and only a tiny percentage will survive to reach another reef to mature into adults. Clownfish lay their eggs at a full moon, and it is believed that the light of the gibbous moon helps guide the larvae to the surface.
Regal blue tangs live 20 years, and clownfish for less than six. I got really sad about Dory and Marlin when I found that out :(
I would totally watch a Disney movie that involved a parental sex change. Not so sure about the incest, but it is fish we are talking about.