🐟🐠 An underwater dance! Due to damaged reefs, trumpetfish are turning to the parrotfish for some stealthy assistance. By camouflaging behind them, they've turned the tables in the hunt. Could this sneaky tactic be the future for reef fish?
Sign up for our email newsletter for the latest science newsA predatory species of fish has adapted to the destruction of its local coral reef by using another fish, the peace-loving parrotfish, for cover, according to aResearchers and local divers in the Caribbean have long talked about the tactic and painted a similar picture: The long, thin trumpetfish swims alongside the more rounded parrotfish as if seeking cover from it.
in the Dutch Caribbean. At each, they ran a series of experiments on 36 different colonies of damselfish, a food source for trumpetfish.The scientists set up a network of nylon lines and pulled hand-painted, 3D-printed models of the predator up to the damselfish, which swam up to inspect the new arrival. When the prey fish identified it as a threat, they darted to a sheltered place on the coral reef.
Finally, the team attached a trumpetfish model to a parrotfish one and slid both toward the damselfish. The tactic seemed to work: The damselfish responded as they had with the lone parrotfish model.To carry out the study, the zoologists spent long hours in the water, attempting to remain motionless, but the data helped confirm the usefulness of a long-speculated-about behavior.
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