Fact Friday

Farmer damselfish get their name because they actually “farm” a patch of algae, including pulling out the weeds! These fish also aggressively defend their crops from other, much bigger fish and even humans. Scientists have discovered that damselfish cannot digest all types of algae. These farmers pull out all algae except for the one they prefer. Often the favored algae seems to grow only on the “farms”. Learn more.

Stegastes migricans By Elapied [CC-BY-SA-2.0-FR (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/fr] 23 March 2006 via Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stegastes_nigricans_1.jpg.

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