Tag Archives: Surgeonfish

A giant porcupinefish peeking

A giant porcupinefish peeks out from behind a rock

This would have been a good photo for a recent WordPress challenge, peek, but I took this after that was over. However, it also works for this week’s challenge of ‘experimental.’

My underwater photography setup is not a spiffy camera and a bank of lights, but a point-and-shoot Canon S 90 in a waterproof housing. It doesn’t have tremendous zoom capabilities so I’m constantly experimenting with ways to approach fish so I can get a decent close photo.

Taking photos in areas where fishing, spearfishing, and fish collection are banned makes things easier. Fish in those areas seem to know they have less to worry about, at least from humans, so they’re less inclined to dart off. Elsewhere it’s a different story. Often I can get reasonably close, but when I raise my camera toward them they tend to zip away, possibly thinking it’s a new type of spear gun.

The best approach I’ve found is to be as quiet as possible in the water and just drift toward something I want to photograph. In this instance, I was puttering around when I saw this giant porcupinefish headed my way. I like these fish with their big eyes and a body tapering from the huge head back toward the delicate tailfin.

This fish spotted me and dipped down behind a large lump of rock and coral. I waited, but it didn’t reappear. I eased forward, keeping the rock between me and the fish. Still no sign of my quarry, so I slid to one side and saw the tailfin fluttering. Ah ha! With my camera ready and a gentle flip of my flippers I moved to the other side where I found the fish peeking out and giving me this look. I snapped a photo and an instant later the porcupinefish pivoted and headed the other way at speed.

Despite their ungainly appearance, giant porcupinefish are good swimmers and it was soon a good distance away, but when I got home I was happy to find that I’d got this shot. I also like how the goldring surgeonfish in the photo looks suitably startled by the whole encounter.

Sailfin tang

A pair of sailfin tang in the waters off the Big Island of Hawaii.

Sailfin tang are pretty common. Usually the ones I see are a dark brown with vertical yellow bars and a yellow tail. A close look reveals thinner pale stripes between the vertical bars. There’s a photo here.

These two sailfin tangs, that I saw in shallow, murky water, were a first for me. They’re much paler and brighter, the thinner stripes are clearly defined, and their dorsal and anal fins are extended.

According to my fish book, the fins extension could be because the fish were alarmed, but it doesn’t say anything about them become lighter when this happens. I wondered if it was some sort of mating coloration, but again, my book says the fish darken when they do that.

So I’m not sure what was going on, but was happy to have spotted them and pleased that I got a decent photo given the murky water conditions.

Ghost tang

A yellow tang is joined by a white variant.A white variant of the usually yellow tang.

Yellow tang are one of the staple reef fish in Hawaii. They often putter around in large shoals in the shallows, and since they’re entirely bright yellow, except for a white tail spine, they’re easily visible from shore. The white variation seen here is very unusual. I’m not sure why some are white, but I’ve read that it might have to do with stress or disease.

These photos were taken in the same location, a few months apart, but I think it’s the same fish as the markings appear identical.

One of these fish is not a convict tang

A cigar wrasse swims among a shoal of convict tang.
Shoals of convict tang are common in the near-shore waters of the Big Island and it’s equally common to see a bright yellow female cigar wrasse among them. The theory is that the cigar wrasse uses the cover of the harmless shoal to surprise its prey, a variety of marine invertebrates. Seems like the cigar wrasse’s prey does not have real good eyesight.

Abstracts: Queen’s Bath fish

Fish swim in an anchialine pond at the Queen’s Bath in Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park.
Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park, just north of Kailua Kona, contains a feature known as the Queen’s Bath. This is an anchialine pond, containing a mix of freshwater and saltwater. Freshwater seeps into the pond from rainfall. Saltwater infiltrates through cracks in the lava. Because of this, the water level rises and falls with the tide. I can verify this as I took this, and other photos, sitting on a rock near the water’s edge. Just before I left, I realized my feet were now resting in water, the level having risen.

Anchialine ponds are unique ecosystems and this one contained several fish including these two. The one in the back is a convict tang. Not sure what the other one is. What I liked about the pond is the stained glass effect it created.

For more information about Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park, go to bigislandhikes.com/kaloko-honokohau-park/.

Hawaiian flagtails

Hawaiian flagtails and achilles tangs in shallow surging water
Hawaiian flagtails are night feeders, but by day they congregate in shallow areas with a lot of surge as a protection against predators. This shoal was swooshing back and forth in the company of several achilles tang.

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.