Meet some of the cleaners

These are just a few of the species that act as cleaners on the reef. Many species of fish are cleaners. Some clean as juveniles, and others clean their whole lives. The bottom two photos are two species of gobies that act as cleaners throughout their lives. Several species of shrimp are cleaners, as well. The middle photo is a goatfish being cleaned by Pederson cleaner shrimp. The top two photos are the banded coral shrimp and the scarlet-striped cleaning shrimp. Of all these cleaners, the scarlet-striped shrimp is the biggest (at about 2 inches), and the Pederson shrimp is the smallest (less than an inch long).

Honeycomb cowfish

Named for the honeycomb pattern on its body, this cowfish has a remarkable ability to change color. Generally, their color varies from shades of deep green to pale yellow. However, when they are courting, one of the fish turns a rather electric blue, and rushes around like a neon light. These fish are always interesting to watch. Unfortunately, I was only able to get a head-on shot of the electric blue phase.

The Internet is fixed, so the blog continues

Porcupine fishes are related to the web burrfish. They share the ability to inflate when molested. However, they get much larger, up to 3 feet. We often see them from a distance, but this one came close. These photos will give you a general idea of what they look like, and how they move.

Web burrfish

On yesterday's dive, I spotted a small (5 inches) web burrfish just resting atop some coral rubble. They don't look like they would blend in with any environment, but they are hard to spot. Burrfish are related to pufferfish and porcupinefish. This group of fish can inflate their body size as a defense against predators. Luckily, this fish was quite calm, and allowed me to take a close-up of its beautiful eyes. OK 2 days of poor Internet access has stopped me from posting photos. Perhaps the text can be posted, and I'll try to add photos later. We are on a remote desert island after all.

Angel City

One of the popular dive sites here on Bonaire is Angel City. On the shore side of Angel City, sea fans and soft corals predominate. On the deep side, a double reef of hard corals seem to attract all kinds of fishes. We often find large schools of small fishes high in the water column, as well as small schools of large fishes, that during the midday, just seem to be hanging out. The bottom photo is a soft coral. The second photo is a school of blue tang descending upon the interface between the soft corals and the hard corals. The third photo shows a hard coral pillar that seems to be a focal point for schools of large fish (schoolmasters and black margate). The top photo is a closer view of the margate and the coral pillar.

What do turtles eat?

When I took the lower photo, of a hawksbill turtle and a yellowhead wrasse, that seemed to be keeping a close eye on the turtle, I wondered if the wrasse knew that turtles don't eat fish. The bulk of a hawksbill turtle's diet consists of sponges, supplemented with other invertebrates. So the fish isn't in any risk of being eaten by the turtle. Depending on their age and size, hawksbill turtle dives can be as long as 30 to 60 minutes. After eating, they occasionally need to swim up to the surface for air (as seen in the top photo).

Midnight parrotfish

Bonaire reefs are rich with parrotfish, both in terms of the number of species, and developmental phases of each species. They use their parrot-like beaks to scrape algae from rocks and coral. Although they are all around us as we dive, a few are rare enough to make us stop and take notice. Midnight parrotfish are the third largest species here, growing up to 3 feet long. On our dive this morning, we had the pleasure of encountering 3 different individuals. The first one was alone, and then a pair swam by. They came within 5 or 6 feet of us. They are really beautiful fish, and I feel lucky to have photos of them, which show that they have individual markings on their heads. One has a light blue bar between its eyes, and the other doesn't.

Butterflyfish

Bonaire is lucky enough to have 5 species of butterflyfish. The banded butterflyfish and the foureye butterflyfish are quite common and we see them on nearly every dive. We often see the spotfin butterflyfish. The two most uncommon, and rather illusive species are the reef butterflyfish (bottom photo), which we encountered at about 80 feet today, and the longsnout butterflyfish (top photo), which we encountered at about 60 feet. We were lucky enough to see 3 reef and 3 longsnout butterflyfish today.

A fish story

Today, during our dive, we had an interesting encounter with a rather excited horse-eye jack. Although, our Reef Fish Identification book suggests that horse-eye jacks don't get larger than two and half feet, this guy was clearly well over 3 feet. We often see this species in groups ranging up to large schools, but this one was solitary. Its behavior seemed almost crazed: it raced towards me, and circled me closely three times. Then it moved below the reef, and swam past us again, which is when I was able to take this photo of it. A friend noticed that the jack had a hitch-hiking remora attached to its back. She thought perhaps the jack was hoping to scrape the remora off on me. At the time that this happened, a cruise ship was landing in port, within a mile of this site, and it generated a horribly loud, prolonged noise, from the bow thrusters. I kept thinking that having to listen to this noise repeatedly would drive me mad. Then the crazy fish showed up. I wonder if the sound contributed to its weird behavior. Who knows? We also saw 2 turtles, 6 squid, and the largest fish I have ever seen down here -- a Cubera snapper that we estimate was at least 5 feet long, and probably weighed 100 pounds. Just another day on the reef.

Spotted drum stages

Just as whitespotted filefish don't always have spots, early stages of spotted drums don't have spots either. Throughout their lives, once they develop pigment, they remain black and white. However, their fin and body shape changes substantially as they grow. Juvenile stages don't have their namesake spots on their fins. The bottom 2 photos are of early juveniles that are no bigger than an inch or two. Above those is an intermediate stage. The top photo is an adult, about 10 inches long.

Color phases of the whitespotted filefish

With a name that includes an adjective such as whitespotted, one would think that the spots are always visible, but this filefish has essentially 2 phases, one with white spots and one without. In its orange phase, top photo, it doesn't always have the white spots. This species (10 to 15 inches long) is curious and can usually be closely approached.

Peacock flounder

The dominant flounder down here is the peacock flounder. It's name is related to the blue rosettes over the entire body. Flounder are really good at changing colors, and blend in with the sand they are often seen on. One remarkable feature of the flounders is their ability to move their eyes separately. The lower 2 photos show the eyes of the same flounder in 2 different positions: looking the same way, and looking opposite ways. The other photos illustrate how difficult or easy it is to see the flounder on the sand flats.

Razorfish

As we swim above the sand flats, we often see razorfish. They are small (about 4 inches), abundant, and much more colorful than most people realize. They quickly dive into the sand when they are alarmed or threatened. Above, I have posted photos of 2 species of razorfish: the green razorfish (a female - bottom photo, a male - middle photo), and the rosy razorfish (a male - top photo).

A visit from a pair of squid

This morning, on our dive we encountered 2 pair of squid (8 to 10 inches long). One pair was especially friendly, and curious about us, approaching within 6 inches. The other pair wasn't the least bit interested in us. Caribbean reef squid are fascinating to watch because they move like aquatic ballerinas and have large, beautiful eyes. Squid can change colors in an instant, which is a means of communication with their partner.

Big fish on Bari reef

Today the visibility was a little less than fabulous, but somehow, through it all, we encountered lots of big fish. From bottom to top: I found myself encircled by a school of horse-eye jacks (a little shy of 2 feet). We were also watched by a barracuda (between 2 and 3 feet). A small spotted eagle ray cruised by. It's wingspan was about 3 feet. And we were visited by an ocean triggerfish, that slowed down for a look at us before swimming off. It was about a foot and a half long. Each sighting would make for a nice dive. Seeing all of them made for a great dive.

A rainbow of sponges

Sponges are definitely animals, but they don't look like most of the animals that we are familiar with. They don't have eyes or even a mouth, yet they function quite well. They filter small things (such as bacteria) out of the water. Sponges very effectively pump water in through their pores, and out through the excurrent channel. Some sponges encrust on rock substrates, others are free-standing. They vary widely in form as well as color. Here are several examples of sponges from Bonaire's reefs.

Fish watching

While divers are busy watching fish and other marine life on the reef, it's not uncommon to find that the fish are watching the divers as well. Sometimes a fish will follow us for quite a while. The lower photo is of a saucereye porgy. This fish is about 14 inches long, and has followed us on several of our dives on Bari reef. The upper photo is a schoolmaster. They get up to about 2 feet, and we regularly see them hanging out under large reef structures and soft corals, watching us.