Bicolour damselfish

Photo: Donald Davesne · CC BY

Bicolour damselfish are among the most territorial reef fish at Molinere, each individual claiming a small patch of sculpture surface as its algae garden and aggressively defending it against intruders including divers. Their farming behaviour — killing coral polyps to create bare substrate for algae — is a significant ecological process on Caribbean reefs, and on the artificial substrate at Molinere it creates a patchwork of cleared zones that paradoxically attract a diversity of invertebrates.