Smallmouth Grunt

Photo: uconnbirdfish · CC BY-NC-ND

Schools of thousands of smallmouth grunts pack the upper sections of the cave, their yellow-striped bodies forming a dense living curtain that parts as divers move through. During the day they rest in these tight schools, relying on collective vigilance for predator detection. At dusk they migrate out of the cave mouth to forage across the adjacent reef, returning before dawn in a commute behaviour that has been observed reliably for years.