Orangespotted gobies

Over the last week, we have made several dives looking at the relationship between orangespotted gobies and the snapping shrimp that they share their burrows with.

The gobies have been no longer than 2 inches, and some of the shrimp are almost as long.  The trouble is that they are both pretty close to the same color as the sand in which they live.

At one site, we found this commensal relationship at about 60 feet deep, and at a nearby site we found them at 14 feet.  Spotting the gobies out guarding the burrows is not always easy.  Other days, they seem easy to find.

Tube blennies

These are small, elongated fish that live in old tube worm holes in reef structures. Often, we only see a head poking out. Patient observation can result in seeing them dart out of their holes to feed on plankton that zips by. They are very abundant, but easy to overlook, because of their size (several species are less than 1 inch long).

However, stopping to look at their tiny faces is rewarding. If you look closely, the bottom photo contains a darkheaded blenny in the foreground, and a 2nd blenny in the background.

The rest of the photos are probably secretary blennies. The top photo also has a second blenny in the background.

More anemone shrimp

I continue to be drawn to the complex communities of shrimp species hosted by sea anemones. While the Pederson cleaner shrimp and squat anemone shrimp are most commonly seen (see Feb. 8th post), we also find other species in anemones.

One of the prettiest shrimp is the spotted cleaner shrimp. They don't get bigger than an inch. The youngest ones are nearly transparent. The bottom 2 photos are a couple of views of the same individual.

The shrimp in the top photo is also quite lovely, but not abundant enough to be included in Paul Humann's "Reef Creature Identification: Florida, Caribbean, Bahamas" guide. I am clueless as to what it is, but I am guessing that it might also be a cleaner shrimp. It was about an inch long.

Permit

Permit are built like pompanos and palometas, all are members of the jack family. They are rather uncommon here in Bonaire. Today was only the second time this season that we have seen one. But today, the permit was feeding in the sand, right in front of me, and didn't seem to mind me taking photos at all. This fish was about 2 feet long, quite a striking looking fish.

Crevalle Jack

We have seen a single crevalle jack zipping past us a number of times in the last 6 weeks, while we were diving, swimming, and snorkeling. Sometimes, he comes within a few feet of us, and even swims between us, but he always moves fast. This morning, I saw him coming, and was able to take a photo of most of him. He was over 2 feet long, and we saw him at about 40 feet deep.

This jack is a voracious predator, and rather uncommon here in Bonaire.

The close-up is from today, the other shot was taken last week.

Rainbow parrotfish

Yesterday rainbow runners, today rainbow parrotfish! We encountered 3 rainbow parrotfish hanging out together on our dive, this morning, at about 15 feet.

Parrotfish play an important ecological role on the reefs, they graze algae from coral and rocks. This is one of the largest parrotfish species that occurs down here, so it is always a treat to see one. Three together makes for a memorable dive. Although this species reaches 5.5 feet in length, the biggest of these fish was about 3 feet.

Rainbow runner

Today, we encountered a school of 25 to 30 rainbow runner, a first for me. This species is a member of the jack family, and is typically an open water fish that is rarely seen over reefs.

We saw them at one of the southern dive sites, at about 60 feet, out above the second reef. They swam by several times, seeming almost as interested in us as we were in them. They were about 2 feet long.

This encounter could make it on to Bori's 2012 video.