Fishes Feeding - Reef Life of the Andaman - Part 19

In this video we look at ways that fish hunt and feed, mostly by collaborating in schools. At Richelieu Rock we first see a rhizostome jellyfish, Versuriga anadyomene, under attack from a scrawled filefish at Richelieu Rock in Thailand and then see a school of streaked spinefoots (Java rabbitfish, Siganus javus) preying on a jellyfish as rainbow runners, Elagatis bipinnulata, dart by. We then encounter streaked spinefoots joining Singapore parrotfish, Scarus prasiognathus, feeding on algae on the coral reef at Staghorn Reef on Racha Yai near Phuket, and a school of blue-barred parrotfish, Scarus ghobban, feeding at Koh Bon. At East of Eden in the Similan Islands, we find different types of fish collaborating in their hunt for prey. Goldsaddle goatfish (Parupeneus cyclostomus), bluefin trevally (Caranx melampygus) and smalltooth emperors (Lethrinus microdon) make a spectacular sight as they gang up in their hunt for small fishes.

Fringelip mullet, Crenimugil crenilabis, are occasionally spotted in a school at Racha Noi, feeding by filtering organic matter from the sand. At Koh Tachai, north of the Similan Islands, we see a variety of tropical fish that would do any aquarium proud, all gathered around a titan triggerfish, Balistoides viridescens, as it feeds. We then meet the blackspotted puffer, Arothron nigropunctatus, standing by at another feeding frenzy at Anemone Reef, then feeding alone at Richelieu Rock. Finally we encounter a yellow trumpetfish, Aulostomus chinensis, firstly "riding" above a porcupinefish, and then hiding within a school of yellowfin goatfish so that it can more easily approach its prey.