Subtropical anemonefish Amphiprion latezonatus recorded in two additional host sea anemone species

Abstract

Anemonefishes are habitat specialists that form obligate symbioses with host sea anemones (Fautin and Allen 1997). Some anemonefishes associate with a range of hosts, whereas others only use one host species. The wideband anemonefish Amphiprion latezonatus is endemic to high-latitude reefs in eastern Australian and, in published sources, has previously only been documented with Heteractis crispa (Fautin and Allen 1997; Ollerton et al. 2007). Here, we establish that A. latezonatus utilizes two additional species, Entacmaea quadricolor and Stichodactyla gigantea. In an unpublished thesis, Richardson (1996) recorded A. latezonatus associating with E. quadricolor in the Solitary Islands Marine Park, New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Sub-adults were found to occupy both H. crispa and E. quadricolor, while breeding pairs were found only in E. quadricolor (Richardson 1996). Our observations confirm the use of these hosts at this location, but also indicate that