Paper Reviewed
Coker, D.J., Nowicki, J.P. and Pratchett, M.S. 2015. Body condition of the coral-dwelling fish Dascyllus aruanus (Linnaeus 1758) following host colony bleaching. Environmental Biology of Fishes 98: 691-695.

Introducing their study, Coker et al. (2015) say it is not yet clear whether there are -- or are not -- significant sub-lethal effects on fishes that associate with corals during a bleaching event, which could include such things as "declines in physiological condition driven by the reduction of resources (e.g., changes in foraging habitat, food availability) and increased stress (presence of predators, increased competition, changes in environment) of associated fishes," which could also lead to "more detrimental consequences on individual fitness and population abundance." And, therefore, they decided to see what they could learn about the subject.

Working with coral-dwelling Dascyllus aruanus fish that were spread throughout 26 colonies of Seriatopora hystrix corals within a lagoon on the southern side of the Great Barrier Reef's Lizard Island, the three Australian researchers experimentally stressed several colonies that lost tissue pigmentation and turned white within two days and remained in that bleached condition for an additional two weeks. Concomitantly, they observed "no effect on the body condition of D. aruanus," and they thus concluded they "would expect other non-corallivorous coral-associated fishes to also be relatively unaffected (e.g., coral gobies, crouchers), particularly species that are more mobile and move between corals (e.g., other damselfish species, hawkfish)."

In further support of this expectation, Coker et al. note that "Feary et al. (2009) found no difference in body condition for two species of coral-dwelling damselfish associating with varying levels of coral habitat degradation (100%, 50%, 0% live coral)." And they say that "this may imply why coral-dwelling fishes maintain their association with bleached colonies and only vacate these habitats once corals die," citing Coker et al. (2012). Last of all, they say these several observations suggest that "these fishes have the potential to maintain their fecundity during a mild bleaching event."

References
Coker, D.J., Pratchett, M.S. and Munday, P.L. 2012. Influence of coral bleaching, coral mortality and conspecific aggression on movement and distribution of coral-dwelling fish. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 414: 62-68.

Feary, D.A., McCormick, M.I. and Jones, G.P. 2009. Growth of reef fishes in response to live coral cover. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 373: 45-49.