Why don't Caribbean Anthias fish form large schools like the ones in the Indopacific?

[Ohioreefer7]

I have a question about why the Anthias fish in the Caribbean don't form large schools like the ones in the Indopacific. Is it because there isn't enough nutrition for them or are the Caribbean waters so polluted that they can not sustain them? Thanks.

[hogfanreefer]

What species of anthias are found in the Caribbean? I've been to Cozumel, Belize, Roatan and Curacao and don't recall seeing any anthias. Wasn't really looking for them though.

[eastlake]

Do you mean the creole anthias (Paranthias furcifer/Paranthias colonus )?

[eastlake]

or yellow fin bass (Anthias nicholsi)?

[ca1ore]

Aren't most of the schooling indopacific species pseudoanthias? Don't think any of them are found in the Caribbean.

[eastlake]

The limited info I found about Anthias nicholsi did say that they were a schooling species and found from Nova Scotia down to the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and Brazil but are founds at depths from 50 meters to 400 meters so they're primarily a deep water species. Very pretty fish with all of the colors that seem synonymous with the various deep water fishes with the yellows and pinks and what have you. I'm with you though, I didn't realize there was a species of anthias in the Caribbean until this thread prompted me to search.

[eastlake]

http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/16407002/0
here's the link where I found the distribution info

[Ohioreefer7]

http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/16407002/0
here's the link where I found the distribution info

Thanks for the information. I am really just curious as to why they are not closer to the surface like the Anthias in the Red Sea or Philippines. There are clouds of Anthias while there are almost none in the upper levels of the Caribbean. I am just thinking that maybe there is a lot more food available in the Indopacific than in the Caribbean. It says they eat plankton so maybe the Caribbean is very deficient of plankton? Or maybe it is too polluted and the plankton is dead in the upper levels of the Caribbean?

[Ohioreefer7]

The amount of Anthias in this scuba video of the Philippines is a lot more than the amount of fish in the Caribbean.

https://youtu.be/URfzSujC07U

[hogfanreefer]

Maybe it's just a different eco system and other species have taken their place in the Caribbean.

Look at this video I took just a few months ago in Roatan. Look especially at the second scene. There are 10's of thousands of a single species in that picture (Creole Wrasse). We saw that kind of thing every day on that trip.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mBIk0Tvc07s" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[eastlake]

I don't think that it has to do with pollution levels, more just that's the portion of the environment that this particular species of anthis as evolved to inhabit. Like hogfanreefer pointed out you can still see several other large schools of fish in the Caribbean, huge schools of blue tangs are breath taking, for one reason or the next the anthias just didn't take over the shallower reaches like they did in the indo-pacific. Not to mention the difference in anthias species diversity between the two regions.

[ca1ore]

Nothing to do with pollution. Different species in different oceans (Pacific being much older and therefore more diverse). I've dived both and it's really not much of a competition - Pacific/Indian has far more diversity. Dive the Caribbean and you see loads of sponges, gorgonians, some stonies, and decent fish varieties. Dive the IndoPacific and you see bewildering varieties of soft corals, hard corals, giant clams, and swarms of fish. Incidentally, Hawaii is more like the Caribbean in terms of limited diversity. Tough for animals to get there.

[Ohioreefer7]

Another thought I had was the color of the water in the Caribbean vs the Indopacific. It seems that the water in the Indopacific is a pastel blue like the blue that you see in rock quarry that has filled with water. I think this has to do with minerals in the water. So I was thinking maybe since the Indopacific has more coral and maybe the dead coral make up a higher percentage of the sand there so there might be more minerals in the Indopacific? Like Calcium from the Calcium Carbonate coral skeletons. The water in the Indopacific seems almost more chalky than in the Caribbean too. Like maybe the Calcium and minerals in the water refract the light more? Not sure but there is definitely a different look to the Indopacific compared to the Caribbean.

[Ohioreefer7]

Nothing to do with pollution. Different species in different oceans (Pacific being much older and therefore more diverse). I've dived both and it's really not much of a competition - Pacific/Indian has far more diversity. Dive the Caribbean and you see loads of sponges, gorgonians, some stonies, and decent fish varieties. Dive the IndoPacific and you see bewildering varieties of soft corals, hard corals, giant clams, and swarms of fish. Incidentally, Hawaii is more like the Caribbean in terms of limited diversity. Tough for animals to get there.

The best advice to scuba divers that enjoy diving in the Caribbean is to never take a trip to Asia to scuba dive.

[ca1ore]

The best advice to scuba divers that enjoy diving in the Caribbean is to never take a trip to Asia to scuba dive.

:lol: Ain't THAT the truth. I did a 2 week live-aboard to Palau back in 2001. Kinda killed my interest because nothing was even close again.

[hogfanreefer]

I haven't had the privilge of diving those areas but I plan to soon. I don't think it well keep me from enjoying my Caribbean dives though. Especially Cozumel and Roatan.