Friday, January 15, 2016

Two "similar" fish species

This morning, while diving at a depth of about 60 feet, I was struck by the physical similarity of two species, both of which were milling around me.  Their coloring and body shape is quite similar: a silver, torpedo-shaped body with a long yellow stripe down the center and a yellow tail.  But these two species have very different life styles.

The first fish is the yellowtail snapper.  This is a fast-swimming, visual predator that feeds on smaller fish in the water column.  These individuals were about 14 inches long, but they grow to over 2 feet in length.



The second species is the yellow goatfish.  It is a bottom feeding fish, that feeds using chemoreception to detect the scent of prey.  These fish were about 9 inches long, and they don't grow much larger than one foot.



Athough they superficially look like each other, their lives are very different.  But they were all hanging out in the same area, not interested in feeding.

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