Review and images by JimoAi; edited by bmathison1972
Sea anemones paralyze their prey with their stinging tentacles with the aid of little harpoons. However, there are a few animals that use these stinging tentacles to their advantage, mainly to seek refuge from predators. But the most famous of these animals to take advantage of these stinging tentacles: the anemonefish. There are about 28 different species, and they all come in all shapes and sizes, but the most famous is the ocellaris clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris), thanks to a certain disney movie and its sequel. Because of said movie, the sales of clownfish have skyrocketed and wild population plummeted. Fortunately, captive bred alternatives exists now and fewer clownfish are taken from the wild. These little fish are found in the warm waters around coral reefs in Northern Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. There is a black and white population of these fish in Darwin, Australia. Ocellaris clownfish are often mistaken for the similar looking percula clownfish (A. percula), but the species have a few notable differences : the ocellaris has thinner black outline and 11 dorsal spines while the percula has a thicker black outline and 10 dorsal spines.
About the figure: The figure is part of the large Animal Adventure Clear Aquarium Tank & Ocean Animals set in the ANIA line by Takara Tomy A.R.T.S. Being a really small figure, there’s nothing much to say about it. This little clownfish is about 2.5 cm (with my finger for scale) so it’s about 1:3.5 for a large male and 1.44 for a large female. Being so small, I am unable to count the number of dorsal rays but judging at the thinner black stripes, I came to the conclusion that this figure represents the ocellaris clownfish. The figure is painted in the typical clownfish orange colour with white stripes. but some species appear red, yellowish or even black in some cases.
The fins do appear to be in the correct shape and size but the eye is just painted black, without any irises or pupils. Kind of wish it was yellow with a black pupil, but seeing how small this figure is, I’ll let it slide.
This figure seems to be really rare and I’m unsure it’s still in production or not. The playset that it comes in, which also includes a giant manta ray action figure, seems to go for hundreds on eBay. I’ll say I can’t recommend it as I don’t think many people are willing to fork out hundreds of dollars for an inch long clownfish figure. Alternatively, you can’t go with the retired Kaiyodo Enoshima Aquarium series 1 ocellaris clownfish, the Yowie Group clownfish, the Yujin clownfish, the-still-in-production Colorata clownfish with anemone (which IMO is kind of inaccurate as the middle band does not go all the way up), and the Papo clownfish.
