School of Dascyllus fish swimming around bleached Acropora coral

Bleached Coral And Its Inhabitants.

This underwater free stock video footage shows a small school of Dascyllus fish swimming around a bleached Acropora coral. The Acropora coral has lost much of its color, turning pale with faint hints of pink and orange at the tips, indicating some stress. The coral branches are densely packed and sit on a sandy seafloor. The black-and-white striped Dascyllus fish move in and out of the coral, their distinct pattern contrasting with the light-colored coral. In the background, the sandy seabed stretches into the distance, with the clear blue water providing an open, calm atmosphere for the shot.

Dascyllus Fish Dancing Around Bleached Coral – Scuba Diving Stock Footage.

Shot in high-resolution 4K (2160p) and HD (1080p), this free stock footage offers sharp, detailed visuals of coral and fish interactions, available in both landscape (16:9 aspect ratio) and vertical (9:16 aspect ratio) formats for flexibility across platforms such as Instagram Reels, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts. Its quality and versatility make it an ideal choice for environmental campaigns, NGO projects, documentaries, and educational content highlighting marine ecosystem challenges.

Dascyllus fish, small and social reef dwellers, rely on coral reefs for shelter, food, and breeding grounds. Often found in dense schools, they swim close to branching corals like Acropora to evade predators and locate food sources like plankton. Coral structures offer the Dascyllus protection, in return, the presence of these fish contributes to reef health by helping circulate nutrients and maintain ecological balance within the coral environment. Coral bleaching, however, disrupts this essential habitat. When corals like Acropora bleach, Dascyllus lose a safe shelter and a reliable food source, making it harder for them to avoid predators and find suitable breeding spots.