Coral Reef Fish
Many marine tropical fish, particularly those of interest to fishkeepers, are the fish which live amongst or in close relation to coral reefs. Coral reefs form complex ecosystems with tremendous biodiversity. Among the myriad inhabitants, the fish stand out as particularly colourful and interesting to watch. Hundreds of species can exist in a small area of a healthy reef, many of them hidden or well camouflaged. Reef fish have developed many ingenious specialisations adapted to survival on the reefs.
Coral reefs occupy less than one percent of the surface area of the world oceans, yet they provide a home for 25 percent of all marine fish species. Reef habitats are a sharp contrast to the open water habitats that make up the other 99% of the world oceans.
However, loss and degradation of coral reef habitat, increasing pollution, and overfishing including the use of destructive fishing practices, are threatening the survival of the coral reefs and the associated reef fish.
Read more about this topic: Tropical Fish
Famous quotes containing the words coral, reef and/or fish:
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Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes;
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Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Ding-dong.
Hark! Now I hear them—ding-dong bell.”
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Obey the voice at eve obeyed in prime:
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The port, well worth the cruise, is near,
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and he noted them and touched their slime.
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like God’s littlest light bulbs.”
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