Milletseed butterflyfish get their name from their markings, a series of dark dots along their sides. Of course, the markings could be morse code and they could be trying to communicate something to us, if only we’d listen.
I was quite pleased to get a shot of this fish looking my way, for the fish’s expression and for how it shows how slender these fish are. When people approach, most fish, wisely, turn away.
A scrawled filefish passes through a shaft of sunlight as it swims toward deeper waters.
A while ago, I posted a photo of an ember parrotfish missing a chunk from its back (here), but able to carry on quite normally.
In this photo, a bluespotted cornetfish has had its back end removed, likely by a larger predator. However, it too seemed to be getting around fine, though the tail fin is certainly one that cornetfish use a lot.
The other thing about this photo is that it nicely illustrates why this species is called the bluespotted cornetfish.
As you would expect, fish that rely on camouflage for protection are hard to spot when they’re at rest. The best bet to see them is to spot them on the move.
Sometimes I notice the final motion of one of these creatures before it settles in one spot and blends in. In this case, this flowery flounder was trucking along over a sandy bottom for quite some distance before it rested on the sand. Even in motion, and casting a shadow, it’s easy to see how hard it will be to spot this fish when it stops on the sand below.
A couple of shots of ember parrotfish here.
The top one shows something of the peril of life in the ocean. This ember parrotfish is missing a chunk of its dorsal fin and back. I see it often when I go snorkeling and it doesn’t seem the least bit affected by its wound. It’s not unusual to see fish with a tail missing or a chunk removed from part of its body. If it heals, they seem quite able to carry on as normal.
In the photo below, this ember parrotfish has no wounds and is quite healthy. A couple of things of note about this fish. One is the dark algae ‘mustache.’ The other is that its eye looks exactly the same as the eyes of a teddy bear I had when I was a kid. Awww!
These two very distinct fish that are regularly seen near shore. The squaretail filefish on the left is distinguished by the white patch above the base of its tail fin, while the spotted pufferfish is black or brown and covered with small white spots.
These two aren’t traveling together, as some other types of fish do, to hunt or feed. They just happened to be in the same vicinity.
This is a supermale fivestripe wrasse. There are many colorful wrasses in Hawaii, but the fivestripe wrasse is one of the less common varieties. Despite the impressive name, it’s less than five inches in length.
This is an adult snowflake moray eel. Their distinctive markings make them one of the easier eels to identify. Unlike other eels, they don’t have sharp teeth, but pebble-like plates which they use to crush the shells of their invertebrate prey.
Graham's Island 