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Abstract BackgroundThe Red Sea contains thousands of kilometers of fringing reef systems inhabited by clownfish and sea anemones, yet there is no consensus regarding the diversity of host anemone species that inhabit this region. We sought to clarify a historical record and recent literature sources that disagree on the diversity of host anemone species in the Red Sea, which contains one endemic anemonefish,Amphiprion bicinctusRüppell 1830. ResultsWe conducted 73 surveys spanning ~ 1600 km of coastline from the northern Saudi Arabian Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and encountered seven species of host anemones, six of which hostedA. bicinctus.We revise the list of symbionts forA. bicinctusto includeStichodactyla haddoni(Saville-Kent, 1893) andStichodactyla mertensiiBrandt, 1835 which were both observed in multiple regions. We describe Red Sea phenotypic variability inHeteractis crispa(Hemprich & Ehrenberg in Ehrenberg, 1834) andHeteractis aurora(Quoy & Gaimard, 1833), which may indicate that these species hybridize in this region. We did not encounterStichodactyla gigantea(Forsskål, 1775), although the Red Sea is the type locality for this species. Further, a thorough review of peer-reviewed literature, occurrence records, and misidentified basis of record reports dating back to the early twentieth century indicate that it is unlikely thatS. giganteaoccurs in the Red Sea. ConclusionsIn sum, we present a new guide for the host anemones of the Red Sea, revise the host specificity ofA. bicinctus,and question whetherS. giganteaoccurs in the central and western Indian Ocean.