Swapping Bacteria May Help ‘Nemo’ Fish Cohabitate with Fish-Killing Anemones

A clownfish peers out of an anemone in a tank at Georgia Aquarium. Anemones usually sting, kill and eat fish, but not clownfish. Georgia Tech researchers found that the microbial colonies in the slime covering clownfish shifted markedly when the nested in an anemone. Could the microbes be putting out chemical messengers that pacify the fish killer? Credit: Georgia Tech / Ben Brumfield
Dec 10, 2018 - Atlanta, GA
Why the fish-killing anemone spares the clownfish is a scientific mystery that Georgia Tech marine microbiologists are now tackling in fish mucus.
Subscribe to mutualistic relationships