Jonkvrouw vissen

Group 4: Small ovals

Damselfish

Groep 4 - Kleine ovalen: Terwijl duikers de neiging hebben om tijdens een duik eerst de grotere, meer voor de hand liggende vissen op te merken, leidt de uitdaging om nieuwe soorten te vinden er na een korte tijd toe dat ze hun zoekbeeld veranderen en op zoek gaan naar kleinere, voorheen onopgemerkte vissen. Over het algemeen zal de eerste nieuwe soort die een duiker tegenkomt, tot de kleine ovale groep behoren. Deze groep is opgesplitst in de damselfish en hun naaste neven, de chromis. Jonkvrouwen lijken op de doktersvissen omdat ze algen eten. Ze zwerven niet grazend rond, maar verzorgen net als een boer kleine algentuinen. Deze gebieden worden streng bewaakt omdat de algenkwekerij de voedselbron van de dame is. Om die reden kun je de damselfish niet alleen als territoriaal beschouwen, maar ook als Damselfish met zijn territorium.

Veel damselfish hebben duidelijk verschillende kleuren als juvenielen, vaak zijn ze veel helderder en kleurrijker als ze jong zijn en worden ze saaier naarmate ze ouder worden. (net als wij mensen!) Om deze reden zijn de juvenielen zwaar opgevangen voor de aquariumhandel en staan ze onder zware visserijdruk. Als onderdeel van het REEF Fish Survey Project wordt duikers gevraagd om de juvenielen en volwassenen afzonderlijk te monitoren bij twee van de damselfish-soorten: de Cortez-damselfish en de gigantische damselfish.

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

Kleine vissen, grote persoonlijkheden! De juffervissen behoren tot de familie Pomacentridae, die meer dan 320 verschillende soorten omvat! Ze zijn er in verschillende vormen, maten en levendige kleuren. De meeste damselfish worden aangetroffen in zee- of zoutwaterhabitats in de Atlantische en Indo-Pacifische oceanen. Er zijn nog een paar andere gevonden in brak- of zoetwaterhabitats, zoals de (opnieuw toepasselijk genaamde) zoetwaterdamselfish.

Milieu-indicatoren: De gezondheid van populaties jonge vissen kan dienen als barometer voor het algehele welzijn van koraalriffen. Het monitoren van hun aantallen en gedrag kan waardevolle inzichten opleveren in de toestand van deze kwetsbare ecosystemen.

Reef Guardians: Jonkvrouwen zijn als de bewakers van de koraalriffen. Van sommige soorten is bekend dat ze hun territorium fel verdedigen en zelfs vissen aanvallen die veel groter zijn dan zijzelf om hun huizen te beschermen.

Artiesten die snel van kleur veranderen: Jonkvrouwvissen staan bekend om hun vermogen om snel van kleur te veranderen. Ze gebruiken deze vaardigheid niet alleen voor communicatie, maar ook voor camouflage en verkering. Het is alsof je een ingebouwde stemmingsring hebt!

Schonere bemanningen: Een aantal soorten damsel vis, hebben een unieke taak op het rif. Ze fungeren als ‘schoonmakers’ en plukken parasieten en dode huidcellen van grotere vissen. Het is een symbiotische relatie waarbij zij een maaltijd krijgen en hun klanten een spa-behandeling krijgen!

Filmsterren: Damsel vissen hebben hun weg gevonden naar Hollywood. Herinner je je de kleurrijke vissen in de animatiefilm "Finding Nemo" nog? Dat was een blauwe damselfish genaamd Dory, ingesproken door Ellen DeGeneres.

Jonkvrouw vissen

Group 4: Small ovals

Damselfish

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5 Fun Facts - Damsel Fish

info@richcoastdiving.com

+ 506 8610 0914

Playas del Coco, Hoofdstraat 151
Guanacaste, Costa Rica

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