Talk about being a picky eater. It turns out that one species of butterflyfish – the yellow and black striped snorklers’ favourite – would rather starve to death than switch to eating a different sort of coral. This is a problem, since the coral they currently prefer is quite likely to go extinct with climate change.

The more technical way of describing this is to say that Chaetodon trifascialis has a highly specialized feeding habit: it is an obligate specialist for Acropora hyacinthus (press release). Remember those technical terms next time a toddler spits her mashed broccoli back at you. The researchers confirmed the butterfly fish’s fussiness by keeping some in a tank without their preferred food. The fish died.

Apparently this butterfly fish is also in danger by aquarium collectors, who frequently don’t cater to the fish’s tastes. These fish also die.

The paper itself (Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology) seems to carry a more subtle message than the press release or any of the media coverage: they additionally tested whether this obligate specialist did better than a generalist butterflyfish when given its ideally preferred diet. It didn’t. “Increased dietary specialization, therefore, appears to be a questionable strategy,” they unsurprisingly conclude, “as there was no evidence of any increased benefits to offset increases in susceptibility to disturbance.”

I have an inherrent belief that diversity is a good thing and species should be preserved, but even I have my limits. Come on butterfly fish… learn to like your sprouts.

The Australian covers the issue of fish and climate change more broadly (Fishy signs we fail to fathom). Wired has a video (Of fish. In a tank. Eating coral). International Animal Rescue is perhaps contemplating going to the rescue.

Image courtesy of ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies