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 193. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.
The top photo is from two days ago, when I finally made it down to Kilauea Volcano to see the latest in a string of eruptions. Hopefully, I will get my photos sorted for a longer post about that in the next day or two.
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 189. Captions are on the photos. You can 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. This week’s number is 147. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.
This week’s Sunday Stills Color Challenge theme is ‘Pink and/or red.’ See more responses here.
According to my fish book, Finescale Triggerfish are rare in Hawaii, except for the west coast of the Big Island. I see one or two most times I get in the water, and when I see them, I try to take photos. Most of the photos are terrible.
Finescale Triggerfish are, by some way, the largest triggerfish in Hawaii’s waters, so they’re not hard to spot, and with their dorsal and anal fins flopping from side to side as they swim, they’re easy to identify. However, they do present problems. For one thing, they’re generally a blotchy grey or brown color so they tend to blend into the background. While they can be seen close to shore, they usually swim nearer the bottom than the top. And they’re skittish. When I do see one nearer the surface, it’s usually seen me first and is headed down and away.
This one was a bit trapped in a relatively shallow area, so I got a few photos, though unfortunately the water was very hazy that day so the quality wasn’t great.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Black or Metallic.’ See more responses here.
I’m going with the Black Triggerfish for this one. This fish is very black except for distinctive light blue lines at the base of the dorsal and anal fins. Even the eyes are black and very difficult to distinguish in the water or in photos.
The exception to this is when the fish is aroused. Then, blue lines radiate from around the eyes. The more agitated the fish is, the more color is displayed until the fish is entirely blue, yellow and green, except for the fins and tail outline.
These fish often gather in large numbers high in the water, feeding on plankton and drifting algae. But they also feed lower in the water, especially when sergeant fish eggs are on the menu.
On my last swim, I saw this Wedgetail Triggerfish slip into this crevice in the rocks. I thought it might have disappeared, but there it was, wedged in, side on. It might have been protecting eggs laid in there or just waiting for me to move on!
This fish is also known as the Picasso Triggerfish. In Hawaiian, it’s called humuhumu-nukunuku-ā-pua-a and it’s the official state fish.
Posted for Bushboy’s Last on the Card photo challenge. See more responses here.
Black Triggerfishes usually swim near the surface in large numbers. There, they feed on plankton and drifting algae.
