Good morning friends, yep, late again what can I say?? There is so much going on here at the moment that getting to the blog is becoming down right difficult, but I am trying! So just to get you up to speed on what’s coming up for us this month, we first have the crew from “Wild About Animals” arriving from the States on the 14th through the 16th to shoot a story on the sub and all the cool stuff we find down there, not sure yet when that will air but I will keep you posted. Then, days after we have the scientists arriving from the Smithsonian again and they will be around till June 3rd or 4th. We are first taking them, our ship and the sub to Klein Curacao for a few days and then to Bonaire for five days, we are going to be sooo busy! The scientists will be searching for new species of fish and creatures and I will be right there with camera ready to photograph these new finds when they surface in my waiting deep-water aquariums that I will have aboard the ship. We are also in the middle of moving to another house so please be patient in the coming days. When we are out to sea on the “Chapman” (our research vessel) I will have no Internet which means no blog for about a week but I will make it up to you with cool photos never seen before. Here is a colorful photo of a big school of Blue Tangs cruising through the reef. We see these large groups called “aggregations” on the reef here every single day and I still never seem to get tired of it, they are just so beautiful. Adult blue tangs have three social modes: territorial, wandering, and schooling. Territorial adults defend their home rage from other members of the species. Schooling adults are not aggressive. Wanderer adults are not aggressive nor do they interact with other individuals like schooling fish do. Wanderers are mostly chased by other fish including Ocean surgeonfish and damselfishes. Occasionally, Blue Tangs form large multi-species aggregations with other surgeonfishes as seen above. Blue tangs may benefit from forming schools for two reasons. First, individuals may experience lower rates of predation when feeding in large groups. Second, by feeding in groups, fish might be able to work together to overcome the territorial defenses of other fishes. For example, a single blue tang is easily chased away by an aggressive damselfish defending its territory. However, when a large school of blue tangs and their schoolmates try to feed on algae in a damselfish’s territory, there is little that the damselfish can do.  When this occurs, the damselfish frantically, but ultimately fruitlessly, attempts to chase away their more numerous attackers while the school consumes all of the algae in their territories. Blue tangs are active during the day, hiding in crevices on the reef at night to avoid predators. Juvenile blue tangs are solitary and occupy home ranges that increase with body size. Juveniles aggressively defend their home ranges from juvenile ocean surgeonfish. Juveniles also avoid damselfishes that overlap in range with them. Have a wonderful day folks, Barry MORE: Blue Tang Aggregations, Acanthurus coeruleus