#acanthaster

Crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci)

DAMSELFISH ARE EATING INVASIVE  CROWN-OF-THORNS STARFISH LARVAE

Crown-of-thorns starfish aka COTS (Acanthaster spp), are corallivores, thats mean they eat coral polyps. They occur naturally on reefs throughout the Indo-Pacific region, and when conditions are right, they can reach plague proportions and devastate hard coral communities, where they are invasive, such as the Great Barriel Reef.

Programs have been developed to control COTS. Methods include taking starfish ashore and burying them, injecting them with compressed air, baking them in the sun, injecting them with toxic chemicals (e.g., formalin, ammonia, copper sulphate), and building underwater fences to control COTS movement. Now a study recently released show that a wide range of planktivorous fishes prey upon larvae of COTS.

Under lab condition, researcher were able to find that planktivorous damselfishes may have the capacity to buffer against population fluctuations of COTS species. Importants news, because in the past 40 years, three waves of crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci) outbreaks have had a major impact on the many reefs that make up the Great Barrier Reef, where they are not endemic.