I know that clown fish have the remarkable ability to change gender. The way it works is that the largest clown fish in the tank becomes a female. If the largest clown fish leaves to go to the "clinic", as we say around here, then the next largest clown fish becomes a female. I'm not quite sure why this happens, but I'm sure there is a good reason.

This week the fish man brought three new Clarkie Clowns and now there is a veritable hoard of clown fish in our tank. Well o.k., there are five but I was hoping someone would find this page by searching for "veritable hoard of clown fish". They are really neat to watch because they tend to move as a group, all swimming one way and then another. Today I was watching the gang of them, when I realized that they are all relatively the same size. How does the biggest clown fish know that he's the biggest and that it's time for his magical transformation? What if there are two clownfish who are virtually the same size? Luckily, I assume that nature takes care of things like this so that I don't have to worry. But it's interesting all the same.

And when doing the research for this story, I found this very sad news. And also, these pictures.  ¶ 10:01 AM