Fighting Two Spot Wrasses

Lembeh is not only a place to see rare critters – due to its shallow depths and easy diving conditions it is also a very good place to observe marine animal behavior. After some busy days doing gardening work in the resort i finally went diving again yesterday afternoon. And it was a treat to be in the water again … we went to Sarena Beasar (a white sand rubble dive on an Island in the middle of the Lembeh Strait) and besides lots of cool critters i was lucky enough to witness these two Two Spot Wrasses (Oxycheeilinus bimuculatus) having a little territorial fight. They were biting each others mouth for about a minute before the stronger one took over the little coral they were fighting about. The weaker looser went then off to another coral near by – which honestly looked just as attractive to me as the one they were fighting about. A little bit like humans these wrasses 😉