Trumpetfish and yellow tangs

This week’s Friendly Friday challenge theme is ‘Sea Creatures.’ See more responses here.

I go snorkeling two or three times a week and feel fortunate to see a great variety of sea creatures while I’m out. Some of these can be quite unusual or exotic. I recently saw my first titan scorpionfish, and threadfin jack juveniles are weird and wonderful. And then there was my one and only encounter with a pyrosoma.

But for this challenge, I’ve opted to go with some fish I see most times I get in the water. Yellow tangs are probably the most noticeable reef fish around. Bright yellow, they putter around in the shallows, and are easily visible in the water and from shore. Trumpetfish look nothing like yellow tang, but often take on a yellow color and blend in with shoals of yellow tang in the hopes of surprising small fish, which are their main prey.

In these photos, a trumpetfish is doing just that. While it might seem like it would be pretty obvious that the long trumpetfish is quite different from the rest of the shoal, when seen from the front, which is the business end of the trumpetfish, the distinction isn’t so great. And if the trumpetfish can get close enough, it will suck its prey in and devour it.

5 thoughts on “Trumpetfish and yellow tangs”

  1. Forestwood

    They are amazing. Funnily enough, the alternate theme for this week was Yellow, but someone else had set a Yellow theme late last year so I felt it was a bit too soon for doing it again. Do you see these fish in your area?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Graham Post author

      Most of my underwater photos, including these, are taken at my local snorkeling spot. These fish are regulars, but I’ve seen plenty of other things that are just passing through.

      Liked by 1 person

        1. Graham Post author

          Yes. While I tend to be on the lookout for things I haven’t seen before, I try and make a point of also appreciating the regulars and I notice new things about their activities and behavior all the time.

          Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.