Epic Fish Fights
In contrast to heavyweight “champion” Tyson Fury, fish never duck anyone when it comes to a fight.
The videos I show in this post touch upon two of my interests: as a biologist, I am fascinated by animal behavior. Fighting is often some of the most explosive, dynamic behavior shown by animals, also by different species of fishes.
Then, I always loved to watch a good fight, ever since I watched Marvelous Marvin Hagler defeat John The Beast Mugabi for the middleweight title on the small upstairs TV in my parents’ house as a teenager. I also enjoy watching MMA, and have so ever since I rented UFC 2 on VHS with some of my college roommates in California. So fish fighting is the overlap of my fascination with animal behavior and my love for mano-a-mano combat.
In the first video, a farmer damselfish attacks my leg. These are curious fish: they don’t roam around much, but stay in a territory full of algae, which they feed on and vigorously defend. The little fish went for my leg – a damselfish might weigh 10 grams, a factor of ten thousand less than a large human (~ 100 kg) like myself. It’s crazy and extremely brave to attack someone ten thousand times bigger than yourself!
Triggerfish Attack
The video which put my YouTube channel on the map, it went viral and has upwards of 3 million views to this day. When I was near the nest of a Titan triggerfish, it came after me, and did not relent even when I started swimming away from it, backwards, at high speed. I’m glad I had the presence of mind to keep filming this.
A triggerfish is unlikely to kill you, but I have friends who had to get stitches after encounters with them. This is one of the few animals underwater which will come after you at some distance from its home range, as opposed to only defending itself when you annoy it.
Goby Fight
This is a short video I filmed in Siquijor, Philippines: A pair of gobies defending their burrow; a third goby of the same species approaches; very quickly carnage ensues, and the pair even works together in the fight. Tiny fish, small brains, still, complex behavior executed at high speed.
Catfish
The video below shows a very unique constellation: A Damselfish tries to defend its territory, but he’s on against not a single enemy, but against a school of catfish. This is an unusual type of school, more of a living cloud than the orderly schools of many pelagic fishes where everyone is aligned into roughly the same orientation.
When the damselfish attacked, the catfish dispersed. The damselfish is punching water. It’s confused. Quite an unusual piece of natural history, again.
Best Of
Also, don’t miss this best-of fish versus man, featuring the one and only Matt LaFrance, also known as the John Belushi of the coral reef:
I hope you enjoyed these, best Fishes,
Klaus
