Acute Halfbeaks swim just below the surface of the water, often in schools. It’s not unusual to encounter them flashing by, which can be a little disconcerting, especially when the group circles back around. They’re not something to worry about during the day, but at night needlefishes in general can be excited by lights in and on the water, and there have been many instances of people being speared by those long, sharp beaks, some fatally.
I know this fish as a Crocodile Needlefish (Tylosurus crocodilus), a name explained by looking at the jaws and teeth. Elsewhere, it’s known as a Houndfish. When I first saw it, I thought it might have a bit of fishing gear hooked into its mouth. It was working its jaws up and down, as if it might be trying to dislodge something. But when I got closer, I saw it had a fish in it’s mouth.
The unlucky fish looks like a toby, probably an Hawaiian White-spotted Toby. Except the unlucky fish might be the needlefish because the toby has clearly inflated itself, as they do. Not only that, but the skin of these tobies is highly toxic. My fish book tells of a diver who found a frogfish with one of these tobies inflated in its mouth. The frogfish was dead, though whether suffocated or poisoned he couldn’t tell. He freed the toby, which swam away none the worse for wear!
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 142. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.
Also posted for Becky’s Squares: Move Forward, Reconstruct, Renew, and/or are Burgeoning. See more responses 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. The top photo was one of these and I thought, I must have run this before, but I hadn’t. It turned out to be a photo I’d processed, but neglected to move from my originals folder. Without The Numbers Game, I would never have found this!
This week’s number is 138. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.
When I go snorkeling, one of the first fish I’m almost guaranteed to see are needlefish. The often congregate in the shallows just below the surface of the water. I can often get very close to them before they scoot to one side or part in the middle as I go through.
Needlefishes travel in one direction near the surface, while convict tangs go the opposite way on a lower level. It’s not unusual for fish to have a particular level they operate in.
This crocodile needlefish swam up to check me out one day when I was snorkeling. These are large fish and sometimes, when I see them, I mistake them for great barracudas. A somewhat disturbing fact about crocodile needlefish is that, if they become alarmed, particularly at night, they can turn on whoever has frightened them and drive their beak into that person. The wounds inflicted can be very serious and deaths have been recorded. Mostly though, when I’m snorkeling, they just cruise by and take a non-threatening look.
My most recent manta ray encounter was notable for the sheer exuberance of the ray. It swam up to my wife and me, then curved away, then came back again. At one point it moved farther off, into murkier, shallow water (which is why I didn’t get photos) and did several loop de loops for no apparent reason. It swam along with us for a while, closer to the shore, until we lost sight of it.
The top photo shows it approaching. I love it when they come straight towards me. They look so strange and yet so amazing, and there’s nothing to fear whatsoever since they’re plankton eaters and among the least dangerous creatures in the water. It wasn’t until I processed my photos that I noticed the acute halfbeaks passing between us. Ironically, this might be one of my better photos of them, captured unintentionally.
The bottom photo shows one of the ray’s curving passes with its mouth closed which, when I think about it, might be the first time I’ve seen that.
Graham's Island 