Fish Farming

Perfectly timed for our mutualism lecture is this report from yesterday that the dusky damselfish has joined a select group of species, including humans, ants, and salt-marsh snails, that are known to cultivate beneficial crops. The fish rely on the algae as a source of food, but the algae also benefit because they only survive well if they are farmed. The algae farms are kept both protected and weeded by the damselfish. Unwanted sea urchins and starfish are ejected from the farms, and unpalatable algae are meticulously weeded out to promote lush turfs of the preferred species. When the damselfish are removed from the 'farms' it only takes a couple of days for other grazing fish to move in and obliterate all the algae growing inside the gardens.

This time last year: Mt. St. Helens and Wiki1B again