Clown Triggerfish off Boca/Delray

[b-dog]

I can add something to this discussion of exotic tropical fish sightings in So Fla, (albeit in another place). About 3 years ago I was on a shore dive at the Dania Erojacks. At the very east end of the line of jacks I sighted what was undoubtedly a Pacific Damsel Fish of some type. It rose up with a cloud of Yellow Wrasse to regard me and after about 2 seconds flashed into the jacks. I do not know the specific species as I am just about ignorant for the most part on these Pacific natives other than Lion Fish and Clown Fish. I had started the dive from within John Lloyd State Park so I was without a spear gun. Additionally as we were in our infancy as far as the Lion Fish infestation here abouts and they were not yet on my radar screen, I certainly did not have a little Lion Fish eradication spear of any kind with me. I posted on SB that evening that I had seen this little bugger and asked everyone that might frequent the area to keep a sharp eye out and hopefully someone would catch/net/spear the thing.
I have not seen or heard any mention of this single fish since then and I assume that it had been recently been released and it starved/got eaten/ or succumbed to some native parasite or other complication. At this point, if I see an exotic animal of any kind, it gets whacked if at all possible. I would certainly prefer not to engage in indiscriminate killing but unfortunately, I think the stakes are too high to allow unchecked existence. Too many unknowns.
Chug
Wants to see Pacific fish in the Pacific someday.

Wow, a Pacific damselfish? They act differently from the Atlantic damselfishes. It seems like they always are very nervous and quickly dart into the coral when any danger appears. Maybe that is why they are able to avoid being eaten by the lionfish? They also seem to live in groups and maybe the groups help to look for danger? This is really interesting to me because the Pacific damselfish seem to behave in a different way than the Atlantic ones. Also, if the Pacific damselfish were to have breeding pairs or groups, would they likely become as numerous as the lionfish? Or would they take a long time to colonize the Caribbean? Just curious if anyone is a fish expert and might know what would happen should they become introduced....

 

[pjohnson]

Great. Now we will have every "fish expert" with a pole spear or lion tamer heading over to BHB to save the environment. Humans have been introducing exotic species Florida and Florida waters for 1000s of years. Obviously we have been waiting for the right fish killers to fix the problem. Go get 'em boys.

 

[b-dog]

I wonder if killing off the lionfish will do more harm than good. People are catching too many parrotfish and parrotfish eat the algae that grows on the coral. In combination with that damselfish "grow" gardens of algae and protect it from parrotfish who will eat it. The algae gardins will kill the coral and also the fact that there are less groupers to eat the damselfish there will be quick reef destruction due to algae growth. Maybe the lionfish is a sort of savior because it will eat the damslefish and stop them from "growing" algae gardins and killing the reefs? Lionfish just might help the reefs in the long run as many of the predators of damslefish have been over-fished. Less parrotfish means less algae consumption and less predators for damslefish will also help the growth of algae at the expense of the corals.

 

[tarponchik]

I wonder if killing off the lionfish will do more harm than good. People are catching too many parrotfish and parrotfish eat the algae that grows on the coral. In combination with that damselfish "grow" gardens of algae and protect it from parrotfish who will eat it. The algae gardins will kill the coral and also the fact that there are less groupers to eat the damselfish there will be quick reef destruction due to algae growth. Maybe the lionfish is a sort of savior because it will eat the damslefish and stop them from "growing" algae gardins and killing the reefs? Lionfish just might help the reefs in the long run as many of the predators of damslefish have been over-fished. Less parrotfish means less algae consumption and less predators for damslefish will also help the growth of algae at the expense of the corals.

I watched lionfish during recent trip to Curacao and noticed that they definetely go after schools of small fry over the reef surface. I can't tell who the little buggers were cause they were only about half inch size. But if true this means that lionfish competes fith trumpetfish in preying on small fry, not with the groupers who prey on bigger fish. Parrotfish, especially larger species, are becomeing increasingly rare, I agree with you. In 40 Curacao dives we saw just one rainbow parrot, and not a single blue or midnight. But whether this is due to human overfishing or to the general decay of coral reefs it is hard to say, see here for example: Scarus guacamaia (Rainbow Parrotfish, Blue Rainbow, Rainbow)

 

[b-dog]

One question I have is why a person would put a clown triggerfish in the Atlantic but there are no Indo-Pacific damselfish in the Atlantic or Caribbean. I think the humbug and four strip damselfish only cost about $5 so it amazes me that the Atlantic is not full of them. Other damselfish are very cheap too. So why aren't there loads of invasive damselfish in the Atlantic? Maybe the the reason they are released is because they out grow their tanks and since damslefish are small they never release them? Or maybe the damselfish do not do well in the Atlantic? I am just curious as to why the Atlantic is not filled with Indo-Pacific damselfish, just curious...

 

[b-dog]

So whatever happened to the clown triggerfish? Did they kill it or catch it? Curious...

 

[Danielle's_Dives]

I agree it is getting ridiculous. Just a thought, us divers have to have a license to take fish or lobsters out of the water. Why don't they require aquarium owners of exotic fish to be licensed too. We sit classes and have to be certified to rent tanks to dive, why not have them do some classes as well and educate them to the dangers of irresponsible release of exotic fish and other perhaps even how to care for these fish.? No buying exotic fish, without this license. This would also generate some state funds that could be used in the eradication efforts of lionfish and other introduced species as needed.