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 ABOUTfeatured: 30 Best Snorkeling Blogs Fun Ways to enjoy the caribbeanMay 31, 10 Comments Off
Good evening once again from a tiny little island just 37 miles off the coast of Venezuela! Here’s my newest and coolest Damselfish Garden I found the other day. This is a little four inch Threespot Damselfish who is guarding his most prized possession, his “Brain Coral Garden”. The story with the damselfish is that they find a bit of coral they like and peck off the living coral tissue. The exposed skeleton becomes overgrown with algae that the damselfish like to eat. The fish defend these little farm territories so aggressively that they will even chase off larger herbivores like parrotfish that would quickly clear away the algae. Apparently with the decline of larger predatory fish on reefs worldwide, these little guys have become much more abundant and can be a real threat to reef health. The photo here is a great example, you have what appears to be a perfectly healthy brain coral on the left but missing tissue on the right. The brain coral head now has a thick mat of algae growing on the white skeleton, that’s his personal supply of algae and he will defend it to the death!. Thanks to my friend Nick, I now know what to look for and am seeing these damselfish gardens more and more. If you want to hear more about these guys and the damage they are doing check out this piece NPR did on damselfish in Bonaire a while back. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1117
It was another super hot day but at least the wind is back and the ocean once again has some current moving in the right direction. We still need a home for one of the puppies, I can’t believe there isn’t some one out there needing a great companion?? See you tomorrow, Barry
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