Longfin Batfish

Photo: Johan Bas · CC BY-NC

Longfin batfish school in loose groups near the pass walls, their tall compressed bodies and long trailing fins making them among the most graceful of reef fish. Juveniles are extraordinary mimics of toxic flatworms and dead leaves, drifting in the current with exaggerated movements — a survival strategy abandoned as they grow, when their size provides adequate defense and their diet shifts from small invertebrates to the algae, jellyfish, and small fish that adults consume.