---
title: "Spine-cheek Clownfish"
description: "Amphiprion biaculeatus — Fish. Amphiprion biaculeatus, commonly known as spine-cheeked anemonefish or the maroon clownfish, is a species of anemonefish found in the Indo-Pacific from western Indonesia to Taiwan and the Great Barrier Reef."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/animal/spine-cheek-clownfish
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Spine-cheek Clownfish

> Amphiprion biaculeatus — Fish. Amphiprion biaculeatus, commonly known as spine-cheeked anemonefish or the maroon clownfish, is a species of anemonefish found in the Indo-Pacific from western Indonesia to Taiwan and the Great Barrier Reef.

- Scientific name: *Amphiprion biaculeatus*
- Category: `fish` (Fish)
- Habitats: `sea` (Sea & coast)
- iNaturalist observations: 1768
- iNaturalist taxon: [1277790](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/1277790)

## Names

- en: Spine-cheek Clownfish
- de: Samtanemonenfisch
- es: Pez payaso granate
- fr: Poisson-clown à joues épineuses

## Countries with the most observations

ID (763), MY (160), PH (124), PG (109), SB (70), AU (51), IN (24), TL (23)

## Summary

Amphiprion biaculeatus, commonly known as spine-cheeked anemonefish or the maroon clownfish, is a species of anemonefish found in the Indo-Pacific from western Indonesia to Taiwan and the Great Barrier Reef. They can grow up to be about 17 cm (6.7 in).
Like all anemonefishes it forms a symbiotic mutualism with sea anemones and is unaffected by the stinging tentacles of the host anemone. It is a sequential hermaphrodite with a strict size-based dominance hierarchy; the female is largest, the breeding male is second largest, and the male nonbreeders get progressively smaller as the hierarchy descends. They exhibit protandry…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maroon_clownfish

## Photo

![Spine-cheek Clownfish](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/spine-cheek-clownfish/medium.jpg)

Photo: Olly Morgan · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/348446543

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/spine-cheek-clownfish?lang=en` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).