Tag Archives: Filefish

Scrawled filefish

Scrawled Filefish
This filefish is quite distinctive. It has a flattened body and long tail fin. Typically, it has a pale body with blue spots and scribbly lines, which is where it gets its name. It also has the ability to darken to a camouflage pattern, which is what this one was doing, though the blue lines are still visible. When sporting the camouflage pattern, they lie on the coral and blend in very well indeed.

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.

Reef fish

Many fish make the reef homeA great variety of fish make their home among the rocks and coral on the coast. From the bottom these are: two indo-pacific sergeants, a scrawled filefish, two or three whitebar surgeonfish, and in the background, a number of black triggerfish.

One of the pleasures of snorkeling here is that there’s always something to see and every day is different.

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.