Red damselfish

Red damselfish
Anthias anthias
Max. size: 25 cm

 

Geographical distribution:
In the Atlantic from Portugal to Angola and in the Mediterranean.

 

Biology:
The red damselfish has large eyes and a wide slanting mouth. It is a splendid-looking fish with its long sail-shaped pelvic fins and red or bright pink colour.  It lives in shoals close to the sea shelf  or at the entrance to caves and in wrecks 20 to 200 metres deep.

Imagine a male living surrounded by several females.  So far, nothing extraordinary about that, you may say.  It becomes more so when the male dies, because the oldest, largest female then becomes the dominant male.  This is known as a protandrous hermaphrodite species which changes sex, is at first female and later becomes a male.

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