Category Archives: Fish

Bluespine unicornfish

Bluespine Unicornfish

On any given day, I’d rather be snorkeling. There’s always something interesting to see in the water here.

This fish is a bluespine unicornfish, a name which is pretty self-explanatory. The blue spines by the base of the tail are very visible as is the prominent horn. Not all unicornfish have horns.

The horn helps make the bluespine unicornfish look permanently grumpy, which is perhaps why these fish tend to lead solitary lives. They also tend to be wary around snorkelers, maintaining their distance or easing away when approached. This one, however, appeared more curious and made a couple of closer passes before disappearing.

Posted in response to this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge, ‘I’d rather be…’

A black-crowned night heron snaffles a tilapia

This juvenile black-crowned night heron swooped down and snatched a large tilapia out of a pond in front of a house by the coast. Trouble is, the fish was a bit big and the heron struggled to swallow it. After working on it by the pond, the bird flew to the top of a tree where a strong wind added to its difficulties. It hopped over to a taller tree, which only made things worse, before setting down on the rocky shore nearby.

I saw the bird a few minutes later without the fish, but don’t know whether it finally managed to swallow it or gave up and ejected it. Either way it wasn’t a good day for the fish.

Posted in response to this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge, ‘Out of This World.’

Convict tang shoal

This week’s posts are on the theme of the WordPress photo challenge, ‘Tour Guide.’

Getting in the water is a top activity here. Whether it’s surfing or swimming, diving or snorkeling, the water is relatively warm and reasonably clear. And there’s lots to see in the water. Here, a shoal of convict tang are joined by a couple of yellow tang, a whitespotted surgeonfish, a ringtail surgeonfish, and an orangespine unicornfish.

Fish feeding

Fish feed near the surface of the water off the Big Island of Hawaii.Fish feed near the surface of the water off the Big Island of Hawaii.

Another post based on the theme of this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge, which is ‘Silence.’

It’s not unusual to see fish feeding while snorkeling, but on this day the numbers doing so, up near the surface, were large. These are mostly Hawaiian sergeants and black triggerfish, with a few indo-pacific sergeants amongst them.

By easing myself slowly toward them, they weren’t unduly concerned, parting as I got close and returning as I passed. I felt like I was swimming in an aquarium, a quiet environment without the usual noises of everyday life.

Fish feed near the surface of the water off the Big Island of Hawaii.

Crocodile needlefish

Crocodile needlefish are big enough that I sometimes mistake them for barracudas when I first see them. Like many of the different needlefish I see, they have a tendency to swim in circles around me when I encounter them.

On this day, I came on a largish shoal of crocodile needlefish milling about on the edge of a shallow area of the reef. The water was relatively clear and the sun illuminated them in such a way that their blue and silver sides shone quite beautifully.