The anemonefish of open black sand, living in a carpet anemone with almost nothing else around it.
To about 13 cm, dark brown to black with a white bar behind the head and a broad white saddle running from the middle of the back down the flank, plus a white-edged tail. The extent of the saddle varies between individuals and some fish carry only a trace of it. The similar Amphiprion sebae has a straighter, more vertical second bar and a yellow tail.
It uses Haddon’s carpet anemone Stichodactyla haddoni, which lies flat on open sand and silt rather than on reef, and less often the leathery anemone Heteractis crispa, and this is the anemonefish a diver meets in the middle of a muck site with nothing else in sight. Eggs are laid on a shell or piece of debris that the pair drags in beside the anemone, since there is no rock; the male fans the clutch and a nest can be followed across several days. Recorded from about 3 to 30 m.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.
