News Animals

Shy fish no bigger than a pinkie provide much of the food in coral reefs

More than half of the fish flesh eaten in these ecosystems is from hard-to-spot species

Great Barrier Reef blenny

SHY BUT CRUCIAL  Tiny fishes such as the Great Barrier Reef blenny (Ecsenius stictus) spend so much time fleeing and hiding that people catch only glimpses. Yet these shy species turn out to have an outsize importance to coral reefs.

Tane Sinclair-Taylor

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

Nervous little fishes that divers rarely notice could be unexpectedly important to coral reefs.