Clownfish

Who a Clownfish suits

For a marine keeper, which is a different hobby from freshwater in cost and in discipline. Given a stable reef setup and a home base to defend, they are bold, comic and long-lived. Not a starting point for anyone who has not kept a tank before.

How to build the bond: Respect the home base — feed near it and the greeting becomes ritual. That sits on top of how the species works generally: The bond is stewardship — stable water, fixed feeding hours, your face at the glass until it means safety. Ritual is the whole language.

The Clownfish against the other nineteen

Lined up stillest to liveliest, the Clownfish is 10th of the twenty fish breeds here, one of 6 in the lively band — the energy arrives whether or not it was planned for, so the question is never whether it gets spent but on what.

Ordered by how near each one sits to the Clownfish on the energy axis, then by the notes they have in common. Every fish breed reads this table from its own position, so no two of the twenty are ordered alike.

The birth years a Clownfish sits easiest with

This half of the reading is the species rather than the breed — every fish meets a given birth year the same way. These are the communities that sit easiest with one:

• Whale Spirit Guardian—1948,1960,1972,1984and later
• Lion Spirit Guardian—1950,1962,1974,1986and later
• Cat Spirit Guardian—1951,1963,1975,1987and later
• Elephant Spirit Guardian—1959,1971,1983,1995and later

A birth year outside that list is not a warning — it is the half of the reading this page cannot settle on its own. Seat the pair on the board and it reads the rest. What the fish is like as a companion applies to the Clownfish as much as to the other nineteen.

A pairing that involves an animal returns a word rather than a percentage. The board's deepest layer reads two inner selves against each other and an animal cannot hold one, so the result is described rather than scored — what is read here is the keeper's birth year against the species, and the breed decides everything about living with it day to day. An animal does get a chart of its own once its birth hour is known, one rung further up.

Frequently asked

What is a Clownfish like to live with?

The homebody hero — clownfish orbit a chosen home base and defend it with comic bravado, greeting their keeper from the doorway. On the energy axis this catalogue uses, the Clownfish reads as lively — 10th of the twenty fish breeds here when they are lined up stillest to liveliest.

Who is a Clownfish a good match for?

For a marine keeper, which is a different hobby from freshwater in cost and in discipline. Given a stable reef setup and a home base to defend, they are bold, comic and long-lived. Not a starting point for anyone who has not kept a tank before.

How do you bond with a Clownfish?

Respect the home base — feed near it and the greeting becomes ritual. That sits on top of how the species works generally: The bond is stewardship — stable water, fixed feeding hours, your face at the glass until it means safety. Ritual is the whole language. The thing that most reliably undoes it — Neglect shows before it harms — dulled color and hiding are the tank asking for help.

Which fish breeds are most like a Clownfish?

Platy, Swordtail, Molly — nearest first, measured on energy band and shared traits. At the other end of the same twenty sits the Koi, two bands apart. Every one of the nineteen is ranked against the Clownfish further up this page.