SUFB 1092: Small Reef Fish Learn To Domesticate Shrimp To Farm Algae

Have you ever looked at your dog and wonder "How would you ever survive in the wild?!" I know my dogs are super spoiled and would not survive long in the wild even though they still have their predator instincts. Imagine what the circumstances must have been like when the first wild dogs were domesticated by humans. It was such a long time ago that it would be interesting to see how that would happen now. 

Well, according to new research, there may be a way to find out how and why domestication happens using a small tropical reef fish and mysid shrimp as an example. 

Longfin damselfish curate algae farms on their piece of the reef in Belize, which is in itself incredible. Researchers observed an interesting presence of mysid shrimp above the algae farm. The presence was found in multiple places on different parts of the reef, but the presence was in the same area as the longfin damselfish a majority of the time. 

Researchers conducted a few experiments to conclude that the mysid shrimp are protected by the damselfish while the algae is fertilized by the waste of the mysid shrimp providing a better quality algae product. 

More details on the episode. 

My conclusion: The Ocean Is Fantastic!

Link To Article: https://theconversation.com/we-found-algae-farming-fish-that-domesticate-tiny-shrimp-to-help-run-their-farms-151615

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