Tarpon

We occasionally encounter tarpon on our dives.  Often they are deep on the reef.  Sometimes, they come up to shallow water looking for fish carcasses that local fishermen have tossed over the side of their boats.  They are the largest bony fish that we see here, reaching up to 8 feet in length.  Most of the ones that we see range between 4 and 6 feet long.  They have giant scales, that are the color of stainless steel.  They forage mostly at night, eating fish.  Sometimes, they follow divers at night, picking off prey that the divers' lights have illuminated.

This morning, I had to drop down to 70 feet to take photos of a tarpon that was just hanging out below us.  The top 3 photos are today's tarpon.  The lower 3 photos are another fish, on another day, at a different site.  All the photos were taken with natural light.

The discoloration around the mouth is some kind of disease

A reef fairy tale

Once upon a time (actually right now), a charming little fish graced Caribbean reefs.  It was vibrantly bicolored, with a purple front end and a gold rear end.  It never grew longer than 3 inches.  It was frequently seen flitting about reef recesses, and often retreated when it was approached.  It was often seen swimming upside-down.  It was called the fairy basslet.

Photos were taken at depths of 30 to 55 feet.

Facing out

Facing to the left

Facing out

Upside down

Facing down

Making a U-turn

Banded butterflyfish

On most of our dives, we encounter banded butterflyfish.  They are frequently flitting about the reef in pairs.  Although they grow up to 6 inches long, most of the ones we see are close to 4 inches long.  Their color varies from silver to white, with two big black bands through the mid-body, and another band through the eye.  In the right light conditions, lovely, faint, blue and gold markings appear on the forehead.

Juveniles look similar to the adults, except they have a black spot that is bordered in white at the back of the dorsal fin.  This probably serves as a false eye spot, to confuse predators which direction the fish is going.

The juvenile was about 1.5 inches long.  I found it in shallow water (8 or 10 feet).  The other photos were taken at 25 to 35 feet.

A pair, heading to the right

Heading to the lower left

Blue and gold forehead markings are visible

Juvenile heading to the left, note the eye spot on its dorsal fin

Permit me to introduce the permit

This morning, we had the great fortune of encountering a trio of permit, who didn't seem to mind us, and stayed with us for about 10 minutes as we watched them.  The permit belongs to the jack family.  It is a bright silver fish with a high back.  The tip of it's dorsal fin, and all the rest of its fins, including the tail, are black.  It has a striking appearance.  This species is game fish in Florida. It feeds in the sand on mollusks, crustaceans, and urchins.

These fish were about 18 inches long.  The photos were taken at a depth of about 15 feet.

Permit facing right

Front view

Feeding in the sand

Filtering the food out of the sand

Three heads

Three tails

Heralding trumpetfish

On virtually every dive we make, we encounter trumpetfish.  They are interesting, entertaining, and quite varied in their color and behavior.  They have a long, thin body and a trumpet-like mouth, for which they were named.  They change their color and behavior to blend in with their surroundings.  They are voracious predators of small fish.  Sometimes we see them swimming head-down, tail-up, trying to be inconspicuous.  At other times, they hide in rope sponges or soft corals.  And they shadow other fish species, trying to hide behind them, hoping that they can approach their prey more easily.

Trumpet fish reach 3 feet long, but the ones in the photos below were about 18 to 24 inches in length.  The photos were taken at depths of 15 to 45 feet.

Trumpetfish (facing left) looking for dinner on top of a mooring block

Hiding in a rope sponge (facing right)

Brown phase

Blue snout

All yellow

 

Gray color, with mouth open

Gray trumpetfish shadowing an initial phase queen parrotfish

Yellow trumpetfish shadowing a Spanish hogfish

Almost glued together

Grouper

Over the years, big grouper have become harder to find on Bonaire's reefs.  Grouper belong to the sea bass family. They are extremely vulnerable to overfishing, because they migrate long distances to participate in spawning aggregations  This morning, we encountered a sizable yellowmouth grouper.  It was about 2 feet long, at a depth of 65 feet.

A few minutes later, we encountered a juvenile yellowmouth grouper.  It was about 10 inches long.  Juveniles most often have a dark back and a white belly, but they can be dramatically paler or darker.  The yellow dorsal fin is a diagnostic characteristic.  Juveniles don't yet have a yellow mouth.

Adult yellowmouth grouper on the reef

The most frequent view of grouper (fleeing)

The yellow mouth is pretty faint.

Grouper in the company of a group of divers

Juvenile yellowmouth grouper, facing to the lower left

Viva le French fish

We encounter French angelfish of all different age groups in various reef habitats.  As adults, they are elegant looking black fish, with yellow rims on their scales, and a yellow ring around the eye.  Juvenile French angelfish actively clean larger fish.  The juveniles have hidden eyes and yellow body bars which disappear when they mature, at which time they stop cleaning.

The juveniles in these photos were smaller than 2 inches.  The intermediate fish was about 7 inches long, and the adults were 10 to 12 inches long.  The juvenile photos were taken in less than 15 feet of water, the other photos were taken at depths of 20 to 40 feet.

Juvenile, heading to upper right

Juvenile, heading to lower left

Intermediate phase, heading left

Adult

Queen for a day

Of all the local angelfishes, the queen angelfish is the most regal.  Their brilliant blue markings sometimes appear to glow like neon lights.  They are very colorful, with various shades of blues and greens, and lots of yellow.

Adult queen angelfish are fairly common, and we encounter them, swimming about or feeding, on most of our dives.  They grow up to about 15 inches in length.

Juveniles are much more difficult to find.  They hide in reef recesses, and are shy as they flit about.  I've been looking for them with very limited success this year.  This morning, I found one that was about 2 inches long.

All the photos were taken at depths between 35 and 45 feet.

Adult queen angelfish

Juvenile, heading to the lower right

Heading up

Upside down, heading to lower left

Heading to lower left

Heading straight down

A walk in the woods or a swim on the reef?

This morning, we dove at a site that has lots of soft coral and sponges.  The light was good, so I took photos with natural light to demonstrate what some of the other animal life looks like down here.  Rather than focus on one species of fish or shrimp, today I'm featuring what some of the reef structures look like.

Very few fish are present in these photos.  That makes it even easier to imagine that all this is vegetation above ground rather than animal-life under water.  The photos were taken at a depth of about 30 feet.