Blackfin Clownfish Identification Guide

Key identification features

• Orange to golden-yellow body
• Single white bar directly behind the eye, edged in black
• Pelvic and anal fins solid black, giving the species its name
• Outer margin of the tail fin often edged in black or dusky color
• Compact body reaching about 11 cm (4.3 in)

Common look-alikes

• Skunk Clownfish: lacks any body bar and shows a pale dorsal stripe instead, with yellow rather than black ventral fins
• Tomato Clownfish: also has a single head bar, but its pelvic and anal fins are dark reddish, not solid black, and its body is a deeper red
• Orange Anemonefish: single head bar and orange body, but its ventral fins stay orange rather than turning black

Where you'll see one

Blackfin Clownfish is a Maldivian and Sri Lankan endemic, found on shallow coral reefs and lagoons of the central Indian Ocean, sheltering almost exclusively in Heteractis magnifica and Stichodactyla mertensii anemones, typically in clear, current-swept water around reef passes.