Finding nemo

and his 6 cousins. In the film, finding nemo, our hero and his dad were Amphiprion ocellaris - the "common clownfish" (or the closely related A. percula - the Percula clown) but there are around 25-30 species around the world depending on whose taxonomy you follow and many isolated island chains have their own colour morphs of some species (these morphs are often popular with connosieur marine aquarists). On a rubble reef off a black sand beach in Dumaguete, PI I found 7 species of clown or anemone fish on a single dive. This is A sandaracinos (the orange skunk clownfish).

Although clownfish photos are common they are hard to do properly as their waddling swimming style means you often get a weirdly contorted clown which is why I only got two of the seven species on that dive and why no underwater photographer can resist one more clown shot - the perfect image is still out there!