Here is another reason to hate Damselfish if you needed another reason. As Mark Vermeij goes on to describe: “Damselfish are these little fish and what they do is they make little yards on the bottom of the reef,” says marine biologist Mark Vermeij. These yards — or pastures, you could call them — are patches of algae that the fish actually farm right on the coral. “And in order to make a place for one of these yards, they basically kill the coral,” Vermeij says. “So they go to the coral, they start sucking on little polyps until they die. And then when that happens, little algae establish on that died-off patch.” The three-spot damsel fish is one such species that makes these little “yards” that is playing havoc on reefs. “There are rainbow parrot fish, almost a meter long, and this damselfish that’s not much bigger than a goldfish just comes out. This parrotfish is aiming at feeding in that guy’s little meadow. And the little damselfish just comes out and scares that thing away. They’re aggressive as hell.” Damselfish always reminded me of a jerk, the kind that steal your parking spot even though you clearly have your blinker on waiting for the other car to pull out. I hate jerks. I’m sure I will get the Damelfish federation police on me now, but seriously they don’t need to be killed, just left out in the ocean so they can get eaten by Graysbys. Lots and lots of Graysbys.
Thanks Jeremy H!
