Pink skunk clownfish

Appearance

The body of ''A. perideraion'' is pink to peach. It has the white stripe along the dorsal ridge that is common to all members of the skunk complex and a white head bar running vertically just behind the eye. While the largest species of anemonefish can reach a length of 18 cm, ''A. perideraion'' is one of the smallest species with females growing to a length of 10 cm.

Naming

''A. perideraion'' is included in the skunk complex and so has similarities with other species in this complex. The combination of dorsal stripe and head bar distinguishes it from most other species. ''A. akallopisos'', ''A. sandaracinos'' and ''A. pacificus'' all lack a white head bar, while ''A. nigripes'' lacks the dorsal stripe and has black belly and black pelvic and anal fins. The hybrid ''A. leucokranos'' has a broader head bar and the dorsal stripe does not extend the full length of the dorsal ridge.

Distribution

''A. perideraion'' is found throughout the Malay Archipelago and Melanesia, in the west Pacific Ocean from the Great Barrier Reef and Tonga, north to the Ryukyu Islands of Japan and in the eastern Indian Ocean from Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia, through the Rowley Shoals, Scott and Ashmore Reefs, Cocos and Christmas Islands to Sumatra. It inhabits reef lagoons and outer reef slopes. ''A. perideraion'' has been thought to be found at limited to depths of 3-20 m, however surveys using autonomous underwater vehicles of mesophotic reefs at Viper Reef and Hydrographers Passage in the central Great Barrier Reef observed ''A. perideraion'' at depths between 50 and 65 m. ''A. perideraion'' and ''A. clarkii'' are the only 2 anemonefish found at both the east and west coasts of Australia.

While the morphological features of ''A. perideraion'' are consistent throughout its range, genetic analysis of fish in the Indo-Malay Archipelago has shown that there is a genetic break between the Java Sea population and all other locations. There is a north to south connection of the Philippines to the rest of the archipelago and a mixing of central populations along the strong current of the Indonesian throughflow.

Status

Anemonefish and their host anemones are found on coral reefs and face similar environmental issues. Like corals, anemones contain intracellular endosymbionts, zooxanthellae, and can suffer from bleaching due to triggers such as increased water temperature or acidification. Local populations and genetic diversity remain vulnerable to high level of exploitation of these species and their host anemones by the global ornamental fish trade. This species was not evaluated in the 2012 release of the IUCN Red List.

Behavior

It is a sequential hermaphrodite with a strict sized based dominance hierarchy: the female is largest, the breeding male is second largest, and the male non-breeders get progressively smaller as the hierarchy descends. They exhibit protandry, meaning the breeding male will change to female if the sole breeding female dies, with the largest non-breeder becomes the breeding male.

Food

The natural diet of anemonefish includes zooplankton, benthic worms, tunicates, and algae. ''A. perideraion'' is the only species of anemonefish to primarily feed on algae.