This is, I think, an initial phase bullethead parrotfish. Parrotfish can go through several phases and look quite different in each one. Some also change sex.
So why is this titled ‘crunchy parrotfish?’ Well, I was watching this fish feed and when it feeds, it uses that big, white-rimmed beak to scrape algae and coral polys off the rocks. While it was doing so, I could clearly hear the quite loud crunching noise it made.
I was swimming one day when I came across this. At first I thought it was a bit of wood, but then I saw the distinctive mouth of the trumpetfish, then the eye. It looked like it was once a good-sized trumpetfish until it encountered something that reduced it to its current state.
I swam around it taking a few photos, until I noticed a large barracuda swimming along with me. I thought, perhaps, it wasn’t a good idea to be near part of a dead fish with an apex predator in the vicinity, so I swam off, leaving the barracuda to make what it wanted of the remains.
During a recent swim I was somewhat startled by the sudden appearance of these two large fish. I was close to shore when they shot past. At first I thought they were sharks, but quickly realized that wasn’t the case. They were just very big fish.
Their size, and the shape of their tails, made me think of jacks, and initially I identified them as rainbow runners, but later I realized they’re actually milkfish. Milkfish are the sole member of their species and my fish book calls them ‘among the most ancient and primitive of bony fishes.’
The larger of these two, in the top photo, was probably around three-and-a-half feet long. Those smaller, dark fish are around 9 inches long.
A moorish idol foraging for food. These quite common fish are easy to identify because of their bold patterns, strong colors, and distinctive shape with a tapering head and long snout.
I saw these black triggerfish clustered in a very tight ball and wondered if they were feeding or being fed upon. Many of the triggerfish were showing colors that indicate arousal or agitation, but I didn’t see anything conclusive either way and my attention was quickly distracted when I saw this mysterious tube.
This longnose butterflyfish was cruising around, probing for tasty morsels, when it disturbed this surgeonfish. I think it might be a Thompson’s surgeonfish, but it disappeared before I could make a positive ID.
Nearing the end of a long swim, I noticed these two fish swimming towards me. At first I thought they might be bluefin trevallies, but I could see the coloration was wrong. The other thing I noticed is that the two fish never deviated in their course, which took them right by me. Most fish, when they see someone coming their way, will zip away or at least cautiously ease around the interloper. Because they passed so close to me, I was caught by surprise and only managed to get these two shots before they were gone.
The fish are greater amberjacks, which spend most of their time in deeper waters, but occasionally venture in shallower waters as these two did. The fish are easily identified by the dark diagonal bar through the eye and the yellow stripe along the sides, though that isn’t always visible.
These little fish were swimming back and forth in the golden pools of Keawaiki. The gold color comes from a kind of algae that grows in the pools.
Graham's Island 