News Ecosystems

Fish as Farmers: Reef residents tend an algal crop

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

A damselfish cultivates underwater gardens of an algal species that researchers haven’t found growing on its own.

BROWN ACRES. A jet-black damselfish, Stegastes nigricans, tends and defends its food crop, a tawny algal fuzz that researchers conclude needs cultivation to survive. Hata

The special alga could be the fishy version of people’s domesticated crops, says Hiroki Hata of Kyoto University in Japan.