I kept hearing about a large school of pyramid butterflyfish that hung around in a particular area where I often snorkel. Trouble is, every time I went there, I never caught so much as a glimpse of one.

By the time I last swam in that direction, I’d forgotten all about pyramid butterflyfish and their alleged presence in the area. Naturally, that’s when I ran into a very large shoal of mixed fish including yellow tang, black triggerfish, filefish and other reef fish. In amongst them were a large number of pyramid butterflyfish, which stood out when the sunlight caught the large white triangles on their sides.

Most butterflyfish have some sort of eye camouflage, so the bluestripe butterflyfish is unusual in having none. The diagonal blue stripes also make it stand out from the crowd. And where most butterflyfish have relatives in the Pacific, the nearest relative of the endemic bluestripe butteflyfish, is the east coast of Africa

In my attempts to identify what I see in the water, I use John P. Hoover’s book The Ultimate Guide to Hawaiian Reef Fishes, Sea Turtles, Dolphins, Whales, and Seals. His website is hawaiisfishes.com.

A brightly-colored oval butterflyfish grazes on polyps of living coral head. Since this is almost the only thing they eat, it makes them unsuitable for keeping in home aquariums.

In my attempts to identify what I see in the water, I use John P. Hoover’s book The Ultimate Guide to Hawaiian Reef Fishes, Sea Turtles, Dolphins, Whales, and Seals. His website is hawaiisfishes.com.

A saddleback butterflyfish cruises through coral heads. These colorful fish aren’t seen as often as many other kinds of butterflyfish so it’s always a treat to see one or, often, a pair of these striking fish.

These are fourspot butterflyfish, so called because the two spots seen here on each of them are matched by two more on the other side.

In my attempts to identify what I see in the water, I use John P. Hoover’s book The Ultimate Guide to Hawaiian Reef Fishes, Sea Turtles, Dolphins, Whales, and Seals. His website is hawaiisfishes.com.

From the look of this raccoon butterflyfish, it’s probably thinking, ‘What is this creature and why is it stalking me?’

In my attempts to identify what I see in the water, I use John P. Hoover’s book The Ultimate Guide to Hawaiian Reef Fishes, Sea Turtles, Dolphins, Whales, and Seals. His website is hawaiisfishes.com.