Category Archives: Marine Invertebrates

Encountered in the water

A Cushion Star in the waters off Hawaii. — Cushion stars look like their namesake and are often just as colorful.

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘In the Swim.’ See more responses here. These photos are from my swim two days ago.

Also posted for Becky’s Squares: Simply Red. See more responses here.

An Ember Parrotfish in the waters off Hawaii.

A Palenose Parrotfish in the waters off Hawaii.

Top left: This Ember Parrotfish was passing over a school of Convict Tangs.

Top right: A Palenose Parrotfish caught the light, which really brought out its colors.

Bottom: I often see Finescale Triggerfishes, but rarely get decent photos as they seem to shimmer away like ghosts. These three were juveniles, in shallow water, and curious, as younger fish often are.

A Peppered Moray Eel in the waters off Hawaii.

A Tufted Spiny Lobster in the waters off Hawaii.

Top left: Last year, I posted (here) about a Peppered Moray Eel swimming towards me and then rearing up when it saw me. This one, probably the same eel, repeated the performance.

Top right: I hadn’t seen a lobster in a long time and then saw two on this day. This one is a Tufted Spiny Lobster.

Bottom: I spotted this Snowflake Eel just a few feet before reaching the spot where I get out of the water. It was poking around looking for food and, fortunately, did not disappear under a rock as eels often do.

Painted Hermit Crabs

I spotted activity in a head of coral and thought I’d found another batch of Isabelle’s Hermit Crabs (here). But even as I took photos, I thought the color of the legs wasn’t quite right. This proved to be the case. Instead, these are Painted Hermit Crabs, a species endemic to Hawaii. The shells occupied here are probably from one of the marine snails known as drupes, Grape Morulas being a possibility.

Isabelle’s Hermit Crabs

Lately, I’ve been taking photos of heads of coral to see what lurks within. In this instance, I thought I saw something down there and snapped a couple of photos. When I looked again, I thought, maybe that’s just dead coral.

It was only when I got home and zoomed in on the photos that I saw red in the bands on the legs of what proved to be Isabelle’s Hermit Crabs. According to my marine invertebrate book, this crab was unknown in Hawaii until 2003, meaning that it is a new arrival or has somehow been overlooked by previous researchers. The species only got a formal name in 1997, from a French zoologist, who named it after his wife.

The Numbers Game #74

A monument commemorating Ikua Purdy, a Hawaiian paniolo — This statue in Waimea celebrates the role of paniolos in the region. (Original post here.)

The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 195. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.

A stick swimming crab in the waters off the Big Island, Hawaii — A fascinating, but rarely seen, Stick Swimming Crab. Original post here.

A fascinating, but rarely seen, Stick Swimming Crab. Original post here.

Saddle Wrasse

A cheerful-looking Saddle Wrasse swims over a patch of coral. One side of the coral head has long since died, but the other looks quite healthy and hosts an Arc-eye Hawkfish.

The Numbers Game #70

The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 191. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.

A small world

Tiny fish shelter in a tangle of lines in the waters off Hawaii

During a recent swim, I saw a small tangle of lines floating in the water. While I’m not a fan of debris ending up in the ocean, I know these kinds of thing can have a positive side, so I headed over to check it out.

While I liked the color and reflections of the scene, what I was looking for was whether this floating raft sheltered anything. I had to look closely, but saw a few tiny fish hiding in the lines. As I approached from one side, they disappeared to the other. We played this game for a while and I was able to get a few photos.

I don’t know what the fish were, but they were likely juveniles of one of the pelagic species. They were very small, a half to three quarters of an inch long. The clump of line itself was only 6 to 9 inches across. But such environments provide valuable shelter for a variety of tiny creatures. It was only when I looked at the photos that I noticed another one, the small orange crab on one of the lines.