Climate Change Beneficial For Fish That Farms

Damselfish, also known as demoiselle, are of about 250 species of small, primarily tropical marine fishes. These belong to the family Pomacentridae (order Perciformes) and are found in the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific oceans. These colorful fishes are deep-bodied and usually have forked tails. They are at times easy to confuse with Cichlids to which they are actually related and just like the Cichlids the damselfishes have single nostrils on either side of the head. They come in several brilliant colors in shades of red, orange yellow or blue. These fishes are aggressively territorial.

The most interesting fact about Damselfish is that they practice what we could term as farming. Unlike other herbivores these fishes don’t just graze and eat what is good for them rather, the select a patch of area where there is growth of their favorite algae. They then actually tend to their garden by removing unwanted weeds or algae and living the ones that they eat. The remove the unwanted weeds and discard them at a distance from their garden patch. Damsel Fish cannot digest heavy fibrous types of algae. They mostly feed on the red algae or polysiphonia. Their constant weeding makes the polysiphonia grow in to a lush green patch of garden, not only do the algae benefit but many small organisms take refuge in the lush fronds of the algae. A research found that the damselfish waters contain lot of carbon dioxide and it points to the fact that climate change could actually aid the damsel fish in growing its little patch of garden.

By: MadhuchandaSaxena

Content: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-13/climate-change-would-be-good-news-for-underwater-species/9987754