Friday, January 06, 2006


From my observations last night, this information seems to be correct; I was likely observing a female releasing her eggs into the water. When the female released her eggs, the Clark's anemone fish went straight for the anemone's 'mouth' and ingested as many eggs as possible. This lasted for only 30-45 seconds until the release of eggs decreased. Upon review of the photos from the dive, there appears to be a cloud, perhaps of sperm, surrounding the anemone fish. I have come up with two possibilities: One is that the cloud is, in fact, sperm and that the Hadden's anemones are capable of asexual reproduction, producing both eggs and sperm, like some other "non-host" anemones. Or two, that the cloud is simply the waste product of the anemone fish as it feasted on the released eggs. My guess is the latter, but if you have any other theories or additional sources of anemone spawning information, please let me know...email me.