A surprising snack

Whenever I encounter a turtle, I see -- a turtle.  However this morning, as I was swimming near this hawksbill turtle, I noticed something surprising.  A princess parrotfish viewed this turtle as a mid-morning snack.  It was ingesting algae from the rear of the turtle's shell.

Princess parrotfish feed on algae that they scrape from rocks and coral, and wherever else they find it.  This fish was about 10 inches long, and the photos were taken at depth of about 35 feet.

Princess parrotfish

Spot the spotted scorpionfish

Spotted scorpionfish rely on their camouflage as an important factor in capturing prey.  They are stealth predators that lie in wait, then rapidly propel themselves forward to more or less inhale unsuspecting prey.  This species grows up to 18 inches, but the fish in the photos below were closer to 10 or 12 inches.  They can be very hard to see, even when you are looking in the right spot.

The photos were taken at depths between20 and 35 feet.

Facing away, head at top

Facing away, head upper left

Facing to right, head in center of photo

Facing to right, above the center of photo

Facing to upper right

Frontal view

Banded butterflyfish

The banded butterflyfish is a commonly encountered reef fish here in Bonaire.  Often they are seen in pairs, flitting about the reef.  Although their general coloration is black and silvery white, they have lovely blue and gold markings above their snout. The black bar that runs through the eye confuses predators as to the location of the eyes. Juveniles have a false eye spot to further confuse predators.

The fish in these photos were about 4 inches long, and the photos were taken at depths from 25 to 40 feet.  This graceful fish is not shy, and is always fun to see.

More shrimp in anemones

This season, I have taken many photos of shrimp in anemones.  However, as the shrimp are small and often moving, focusing on the shrimp is a challenge.  Finally, I have a few photos that I would like to share.

The first is the squat anemone shrimp.  Often, an anemone will host six or more of these shrimp.  They jump about and sometimes retreat behind the tentacles when disturbed.  They range in size from 1/4 to 3/4 inch.  This photo was taken at depth of about 25 feet.

The next species is the Pederson cleaner shrimp.  This shrimp grows up to 1 inch. It is an active cleaner shrimp, and is here associated with a corkscrew anemone.  They wave their antennae to attract fish for cleaning.  These photos were taken at a depth of about 40 feet.

Creole wrasse

On many of our dives, we encounter streams of creole wrasse swimming along the reef.  The creole wrasse varies in color from dark purple to violet and even lavender.  Older fish develop yellowish areas on the lower rear of the body.  The snout is usually much darker than the body.  When they are streaming, they move quickly, but at times they slow down to look for cleaners, and they often beg cleaner fish to clean them.  That is when they are easiest to photograph.

This species reaches 12 inches in length, but most of the fish in these photos are in the range of 6 to 8 inches.  We also see early juveniles when they settle into the reef ecosystem, as well as older juveniles.  These photos were taken between 30 and 45 feet.

The yellow-tailed, blue-headed fish is a Spanish hogfish juvenile, a cleaner.

Yellowtail damselfish

Juvenile yellowtail damselfish often settle into small fire coral patch reefs.  They flit rapidly through the fire coral, and appear like little jewels.  They are dark blue, with brilliant blue (jewel-like) spots.  The tail of the smallest ones is colorless, but as they grow the tail becomes yellow.  Older fish grow out of most of the brilliant blue spots.

The fire coral photos were taken in about 10 feet of water.  The adult photos were taken at 30 to 40 feet.  The juveniles were l to 2 inches long, the adults were about 5 inches long.

Peering inside vase sponges

The azure vase sponge is a striking structure on the reef.  They grow up to about 18 inches. Great colors, textures, and shapes.  But an amazing array of animals occupy the inside of these sponges.  I've been peering into almost every vase sponge that I encounter.  Here is a sample of what I have found.

The photos below were taken at depths of 35 to 60 feet.

Graysby

Gobies that clean (yellowline?)

Lionfish

Yellowline arrow crab

Stareye hermit crab

Red reef hermit crab

Brittle stars

Brown chromis

On virtually every dive, we see hundreds, if not thousands of brown chromis.  This small fish feeds in the plankton, above the reef.  Some feeding aggregations are huge.  At times, it feels like we are diving through a cloud of brown chromis.  Occasionally, they swim close to the reef to solicit cleaning from cleaner fish.

These photos were taken at depths of 40 to 60 feet.  The fish were less than 4 inches long.

Looking for cleaners

Pink or purple?

Often, when 2 divers speak of seeing longlure frogfish, they will refer to them by color and diving site.  This frogfish has been described to me as both pink and purple.  These photos were taken with a flash that adds light and changes the colors that we see underwater.  All the photos were taken of the same frogfish at slightly different depths, in slightly different microhabitats.

This female frogfish was about 4 inches long.  She was seen at depths just above 40 feet.

Here the frogfish looks pink and purple, unlike the photo below which was taken about 30 minutes later

The purple-appearing  frogfish has extended her longlure, and is fishing.

Another day, another color.

Here's one more pink frogfish from another site.

Cornetfish

This morning, our dive was graced by the presence of a blue-spotted cornetfish.  This elegant looking, long, thin fish is always a joy to see.  And surprisingly, today's cornetfish didn't flee when he saw us. The blue-spotted cornetfish has both blue spots and dashes.  Its name is derived from the cornet-like shape of its mouth and snout.  It reaches lengths of 6 feet.  Today's fish was over 4 feet long.  It was swimming through soft corals at the top of the reef, at a depth of about 30 feet.

As these photos are not of the highest quality, I wanted to end this post with a shot down the throat of another fish, of similar length, but much fatter, a green moray.