Biodiversity #12 – Mimic Filefish

Biodiversity #12 – Mimic Filefish. He mimics a Black Saddle Toby – below.

Black saddle toby at Meno Wall diving The Gilis. Scuba dive holiday travel planning tips for The Gilis Indonesia - where, when, who and how

Why – because the Toby is toxic when eaten by other fish. But how does he know this?!? The next question is How? Even if he decided to evolve over time to look like another fish – how does he do it? He’s not Stitch! He doesn’t have access to make-up! I guess that’s biodiversity for ya.

There are two ways to tell what you’re dealing with when you’re diving: the first is to look carefully for a first dorsal fin (filefish only), or stripes over the snout (toby only); second is to watch the behaviour: the filefish is confident you won’t eat him – he hangs around; the Black Saddle Toby is not so sure – he skedaddles!  The video shows this clearly.

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