Stegastes apicalis

'australian gregory’

This is the farmer joe fish, it grows its own food (lush red algae carpets), actively weeding out invading species of algae, chasing away other predators, and even fertilising it using its own poo.

They do however have some trouble, often schools of fish (pirates) sweep past, and while the gregory is chasing away one, others feast upon their crop. The top shell (Trochus) is a also a major cause of crop loss, and the fish can do very little but watch, as this large snail that is too strong for the fish to remove, slowly eats its way across its field.