I just love the huge variety in the world of marine fish. They are a testament to the amazing creativity of the Creator God. Here are some examples of the ways in which some fish try to mimic other fish for a variety of reasons.

From Saltwater Aquarium blog

7 Sly Examples of Mimicry in Saltwater Fish

Let’s face it, it’s a fish-eat-fish world out there. Carving out a niche and surviving is a full-time job. One of my favorite survival strategies among animals is mimicry–and we’re fortunate to have several great examples of mimicry in saltwater fish.

7 Stealthy Cases of Saltwater Mimicry

If you want to jump right into things, you can scroll down to see the first case of mimicry in saltwater fish for yourself, but it might be helpful to provide some background about the few interesting types of mimicry that will be shown in this article:

1. Batesian mimicry
2. Self-mimicry
3. Aggressive mimicry

Batesian 

The first, and perhaps most well-known type of mimicry is called Batesian. It is named after Henry Walter Bates, who put forward a theory that this visual copy-catting is an evolutionary adaptation/strategy that helps avoid predation.  Batesian mimicry occurs when a relatively harmless species imitates the coloration patterns of a species known to be toxic or have harm-inducing defenses. It’s sort of a distastefulness-by-association approach, where the harmless animal benefits by association, while the species being copied is largely unaffected.

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