Watch As Hundreds of Moorish Idols Get Eaten By Sharks!

One of the most iconic reef fish was featured on TV recently, but for reefkeepers it proved a difficult watch. In the first episode of the BBC’s Asia nature documentary, Moorish idols, Zanclus cornutus from the Western Pacific were filmed forming large schools before travelling off and away from the reef to spawn. In behaviour that the programme says doesn’t happen with Moorish Idols elsewhere in the world, the fish left the safety of the reef for open water, presumably where their eggs and larvae will be transported by ocean currents. But the shoal was met by an equally large shoal of Grey Reef Sharks, which set about pursuing the shoal and picking nearly all of them off.

With sharks having such a poor conservation status it was good to see them in such high numbers, but our beloved Moorish Idols proved easy fare for them and we all watched as the mouth sized Moorish diminished in front of us, powerless to out swim the sharks or defend themselves.

The programme stated that only the fittest fish survived – just half a dozen or so – but it looked more like luck than fitness, and I’m pretty sure none would have made it back.

Compelling watching nevertheless. Take a look:

Main image credit Philippe Bourjon, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons