Sound Production in the Clownfish

Although clownfish sounds were recordedas early as 1930 (1), the mechanism ofsound production has remained obscure. Yet, clownfish are prolific “singers ” that produce a wide variety of sounds, described as “chirps ” and “pops ” in both reproductive and agonistic be-havioral contexts (2). Here, we describe the sonic mechanism of the clownfish Amphiprion clarkii. We studied sounds (from three males and one female) di-rected toward conspecifics that approach their sea-anemone hosts. Sound recordings, syn