I gotta ask. Do people eat Creole Wrasse?
Not that I'm aware of, but when we used to dive a lot off the coast of Mexico, the Mexicans would bring stuff in that I did not think was edible. So who knows.
They are planktonic feeders (eat zooplankton mostly). You will see them eating tiny particles in open water. The biggest ones only get maybe 6 or 8 inches with the average much closer to 4, but then people (not me) eat sardines and anchovies, so maybe that does not make a difference.
They and Chromis seem to make up a large portion of what I would consider the small fish side of the food chain around reefs. There are lots and lots of them, and lots of larger fish feed on them. They are kind of like BG in relation to LMB in a pond.
Just remember snrub when you are diving YOU are part of the food chain. I've seen some monster tigers and hammerheads out there
LOL, I would be happy to see some. There is a place called
Cocos Island off the coast of Costa Rica I've always wanted to go that has hundreds of the Hammerheads to watch. But my wife is into Macro stuff and open water current diving is not her thing and my dive buddy crapped out on me and got a divorce so no one to go with. Funny how thinking with the little head can totally screw up a guys life (my buddy, not me). I should have done it ten years ago. Shudda, coulda, wooda.
Sharks generally speaking don't bother divers. If you happen to get in some territorial scuffle with one it might end up bad, but they don't look at divers as a food source. And just like the fish in our ponds, everything on the fish mind is about eating their preferred food, reproducing and territorial issues. Come to think of it, I'm not that much different!
We have been diving a lot with sharks in the Bahamas but mostly reef and nurse sharks. It is a rare treat to see a Tiger, Bull or Hammerhead. Have only seen a few in my few thousand hours of diving.
Swimmers, surfers and waders are hundreds or thousands times more likely of getting bitten by a shark than divers. Usually a case of mistaken identity and in turbid water. The shark makes a mistake and the swimmer pays for it.
