Why Is the Damselfish Important?

Unlike the usual keystone species that enhance biodiversity by increasing predation intensity, damselfish increase biodiversity by decreasing predation and thus may better be described as “keystone species in reverse” (Hixon and Brostoff 1983).

How do damselfish contribute to coral reef growth and health?

Damselfishes aggressively defend their algal lawns thereby reducing grazing pressure of other herbivorous fish and invertebrates, allowing algae to grow within their territories and adjacent reef substrate [28,29].

What does the damselfish do?

In the reef farms that house mysids, damselfish aggressively defends the farm area against other fish that would predate on the mysids, significantly more so than they do when their farms do not house mysid shrimps.