Damisela

Grupo 4: Óvalos pequeños

Damisela

Grupo 4: Óvalos pequeños: si bien los buceadores tienden a notar primero los peces más grandes y obvios en una inmersión, después de un corto tiempo, el desafío de encontrar nuevas especies los lleva a cambiar su imagen de búsqueda para buscar peces más pequeños que antes habían pasado desapercibidos. Generalmente, la primera especie nueva que encontrará un buceador pertenecerá al pequeño grupo de forma ovalada. Este grupo se divide en damisela y sus primos cercanos, los cromis. Las damiselas son como el pez cirujano en el sentido de que comen algas. No deambulan pastando, sino que cuidan pequeños jardines de algas como un granjero. Estas áreas están fuertemente vigiladas ya que la granja de algas es la fuente de alimento de las damiselas. Por esa razón, puedes pensar en el pez damisela no sólo como territorial, sino también como damisela con su territorio.

Muchos peces damisela tienen colores claramente diferentes cuando son jóvenes, a menudo son mucho más brillantes y coloridos cuando son jóvenes y se vuelven monótonos con la edad. (¡Muy parecido a nosotros los humanos!) Por esta razón, los juveniles han sido recolectados en gran medida para el comercio de acuarios y están bajo una fuerte presión pesquera. Como parte del Proyecto de Estudio de Peces del REEF, se pide a los buzos que monitoreen por separado a los juveniles y adultos de dos de las especies de damisela: la damisela de Cortez y la damisela gigante.

Beaubrummel, juvenile (pez de dos colores, Stegastes flavilatus)

As with
many damselfishes, the beaubrummel is a rather bland looking fish as an adult, however, in the juvenile stage (shown here) its bright blue and yellow coloration stand out on the reef. Notice the colors are divided horizontally. Generally found in the shallower reef areas, it also has a small black spot at the base of the tail. (Size 1-3”)

Beaubrummel, adult (pez de dos colores, Stegastes flavilatus)

The adult beaubrummel is overall brown/tan in coloration with yellow edges to all its fins. (Max. size 5”)

Cortez Damselfish, adult (pez azul de Cortes, Stegastes rectifraenum)

Cortez damselfish are bright blue as juveniles, turning a deeper blue and finally to a dull brown later in life. This fish is an adult. (Max. size 4”)

Cortez Damselfish, juvenile

Found near the bottom like other damsels, the bright blue juvenile has been a prime target for collectors. (Size 1-4”)

Giant Damselfish, adult (castañuela gigante, Microspathodon dorsalis)

The giant damsel can grow to over 1 foot in length. It is usually found in shallow water of 20 feet or less and, though territorial, it is not as aggressive as the smaller damsels. The long filaments on the dorsal and anal fins can provide a positive ID. (Size 6-10”, max 12”)

Giant Damselfish, juvenile

The juvenile of the giant damsel is covered in bright blue spots and is more secretive than the adults. It is also a prime target for collectors. (Size 1-6”)

Blue-And-Yellow Chromis (castaneto de Limbaugh, Chromis limbaughi)

This member of the damselfish family is generally found on the deeper reef areas of 60 feet and more at the base of large rocky faces. Distinct blue and yellow coloration divides this fish at an angle. (Max. size 4”)

Scissortail Damselfish (castañeta conquita, Chromis atrilobata)

The scissortail damselfish (also called the brown chromis) can be very abundant in shallow waters and near the surface. Spending its time up in the water column, this chromis is an active plankton feeder. Aside from its drab brown coloration, the scissortail damselfish can also be identified by its distinct scissor tail. (Size 2.5- 4”, max 5”)

Panamic Sergeant Major (pintano, Abudefduf troschelii)

Sergeant majors are damselfish but spend most of their time feeding on algae and plankton in the water column. They can be readily identified by the bars down the side, just like the military shoulder stripes of the sergeant major. Males that are guarding eggs turn a dark purple. (Size 3-5”, max 9”)

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1. Disks and Ovals / Colorful

The first category of disk and oval shaped fish are very important to learn. They are colorful, large and very obvious and the three main families that make up the group can be found on almost every dive.

2. Silvery Fish

Silvery fish have many different family members, though we will look at just a few representatives. As opposed to the colorful butterfly, angel and surgeonfish, the silvery fish tend to blend in better in open water and are usually not found near the colorful bottom.

3. Sloping Head / Tapered Body

This third group of “fish-like” fish, are very important to learn. The are common on most dives and are also highly sought after as food fish. It is especially important to monitor these fish to provide data for fisheries management. Snappers can be very difficult to tell apart from the similarly shaped grunts. One helpful hint is to look at their tails. Snappers tend to have straight, flat tails. They are also known for their habit of snapping their mouth open and shut when caught on hook and line. They have very sharp canine teeth that can provide a nasty bite to the unsuspecting angler. Look closely on your next dive and you may see the small teeth protruding from the side of the mouth. Grunts on the other hand, have slightly notched tails. They get their name from the grunting sounds they emit when threatened. These sounds are created by rubbing together bony teeth plates located in the back of the throat. Since the teeth are in the throat, a diver will never see protruding teeth on a grunt, only big blubbery fish lips.

4. Small Ovals / Damselfish

While divers tend to first notice the larger, more obvious fish on a dive, after a short while the challenge to find new species leads them to change their search image to look for smaller, previously unnoticed fish. Generally, the first new species a diver will encounter will belong to the small oval shaped group. This group is broken into the damselfish and their close cousins the chromis. Damsels are like the surgeonfish in that they eat algae. They do not roam around grazing, but rather tend to small algae gardens like a farmer. These areas are guarded fiercely as the algae farm is the damsels food source. For that reason you can think of the damselfish as not just territorial, but Dam- selfish with its territory. Many damselfish have distinctly different colors as juveniles, often being much brighter and more colorful when they are young and becoming drab with age. (much like us humans!) For this reason, the juveniles have been heavily collected for the aquarium trade and are under heavy fishing pressure. As part of the REEF Fish Survey Project, divers are asked to monitor the juveniles and adults separately in two of the damselfish species – the Cortez damselfish and the giant damselfish.

5. Heavy Body / Large Lips

Heavy bodied, large lipped fish belong to the seabass family. We tend to refer to the larger seabasses as groupers and the smaller seabasses as bass or basslets. These fish are extremely important food fish and are under increasing threats from heavy fishing pressures. Monitoring these fish can help provide valuable data to aid in their protection. Most seabasses are hermaphrodites, meaning the same fish will be both a male and a female during its lifetime. The groupers are all born female and later change sex to become male. Most large groupers also congregate each year to spawn at a specific location, making them easy targets for emerging positioning and fishing technology.

6. Swim with Pectorals / Obvious Scales

The fish in this group all use their pectoral fins to swim with rather than the traditional tail swimming of most other fish. The scales are also quite large and obvious. These fish can also be hermaphrodites, like the groupers, with some fish changing sex and others staying the same. Intermediate and adult fish often have very different appearances compared to the always-male terminal phase. This means learning two colors to be able to ID the same species of fish. Most of the pictures shown in this curriculum are terminal phase males, unless noted.

7. Redish / Big Eyes

This group of reddish fish is normally not seen during day dives due to their nocturnal nature. The reddish color helps them blend in at night and the large eyes help them to see better.

8. Small, Elongated Bottom Dwellers

The small bottom dwelling fish often make up the most interesting fish to watch during your dive. Their approachable nature and interesting behaviors make them great fishwatching finds. Blennies tend to be slightly larger than gobies, but are most easily recognized by their curved body posture and expressive faces. Gobies, though similar in their habitat requirements, tend to sit flat and straight on the bottom. The jawfishes actually live in a burrow in the sand that they excavate and maintain.

9. Odd-Shaped Bottom-Dwellers

This category of fish is made up of families and species that didn’t quite fit anywhere else due to their unique body shapes.

10. Odd-Shaped Swimmers

This group of fish contain families that are unusual in their shape, but are swimmers rather than bottom dwellers.

11. Eels

Though looking like snakes, eels are fish. There are several different types of eels, and we will look at two – garden eels that live in burrows in the sand and moray eels. Moray eels have a bad reputation mainly due to the constant opening and closing of their sharp toothed mouths. However, this is not a threat to divers, as this action pumps water through their gills. Most eels are actually very shy.

12. Sharks & Rays

Even though the sharks and rays are cartilaginous (their skeletons are made of cartilage instead of bones), they are still referred to as fish and count during our surveys.

5 Fun Facts - Damsel Fish

Fun Facts Damsel

¡Peces pequeños, grandes personalidades! ¡El pez damisela pertenece a la familia Pomacentridae, que incluye más de 320 especies diferentes! Vienen en varias formas, tamaños y colores vibrantes. La mayoría de los peces damisela se encuentran en hábitats marinos o de agua salada en los océanos Atlántico e Indo-Pacífico. Hay algunos otros que se encuentran en hábitats de agua dulce o salobre, como la damisela de agua dulce (nuevamente, con un nombre acertado).

Indicadores ambientales: La salud de las poblaciones de peces damisela puede servir como barómetro del bienestar general de los arrecifes de coral. Monitorear su número y comportamiento puede proporcionar información valiosa sobre el estado de estos frágiles ecosistemas.

Guardianas de los arrecifes: Las damiselas son como los guardias de seguridad de los arrecifes de coral. Se sabe que algunas especies defienden ferozmente sus territorios, incluso atacando peces mucho más grandes que ellos para proteger sus hogares.

Artistas que cambian rápidamente de color: los peces damisela son conocidos por su capacidad para cambiar de color rápidamente. Utilizan esta habilidad no sólo para comunicarse sino también para camuflarse y exhibirse en cortejo. ¡Es como tener un anillo de humor incorporado!

Equipos de limpieza: algunas especies de damiselas, como el lábrido limpiador, tienen un trabajo único en el arrecife. Actúan como "peces limpiadores", eliminando parásitos y piel muerta de los peces más grandes. ¡Es una relación mutualista en la que ellos reciben una comida y sus clientes reciben un tratamiento de spa!

Estrellas de cine: las damiselas se han abierto camino en la cultura popular. ¿Recuerdas los peces de colores de la película animada "Buscando a Nemo"? Era una damisela azul llamada Dory, con la voz de Ellen DeGeneres.

Damisela

Grupo 4: Óvalos pequeños

Damisela

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5 Fun Facts - Damsel Fish

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Playas del Coco, Calle principal 151, Guanacaste, Costa Rica

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