Amphiprion chrysargyrus

Common Name: Filipino Clark’s Anemonefish

Scientific Name: Amphiprion chrysargyrus Richardson, 1846

Distribution: Philippines, Taiwan, Ryukyu Arc, Borneo, Vietnam, Gulf of Thailand

Type Locality: China

Identification: Identical to the southern population in Indonesia. Highly variable. Caudal fin usually creamy yellow; males with upper/lower margins solid yellow. Anal fin either orange or dark. Pelvic fins usually orange, but sometimes dark. Dorsal fin usually dark, but often orange or brown in highly amelanistic individuals. Body can vary from mostly orange to mostly black, but most fall somewhere in the middle of these extremes. Stripes usually relatively wide.

Similar: Those from Indonesia are essentially identical and only questionably distinct. The northern A. japonicus differs mostly in the solidly yellow caudal fin of males and the two likely hybridize where their ranges abut. The population from the Caroline Islands is nearly identical, but males seem to lack the yellow margins in the caudal fin and may always have light-colored anal fins.

Notes: It’s not clear if this northern population is in any meaningful way distinct from those found to the south in Indonesia. The two have likely experienced regular periods of isolation during the Pleistocene (which in the melanopus and polymnus groups has resulted in more obvious signs of speciation). Phenotypically, the two populations seem identical, but it also seems reasonable to assume that the genetic differences between them are on par with other Amphiprion groups that share this distributional pattern.

This is one of the most abundant species in the aquarium trade.

Taxonomy Note: This species was treated as a synonym of Amphiprion clarkii in Allen 1991 and subsequent references. The elevation to full species status used in this classification should be considered provisional until a full taxonomic revision is published.