Category: Species

A sampling of what lives beneath the waves

Postcard from the Reef – Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasse

A very common fish, endemic to Hawaiian reefs, the pretty cleaner wrasse easily catches your attention with a brilliant neon color scheme. You see these fish nearly every time you get in the water. They are usually found in some cleft in the reef or above a prominent coral head working over another reef fish. They feed on parasites, mucous and dead skin of the other fish. The cleaning services offered by these small wrasse are so popular that there will often be several fish waiting their turn.

While cleaner wrasse are quite pretty they are also infuriatingly difficult to photograph. You can usually get close, they are not overly shy. The problem is that they never stop moving, swimming with an odd, jerky motion in the water. I have long since lost count of the number of blurred photos I have of this fish.

Cleaner Wrasse
A cleaner wrasse (Labroides phthirophagus) in an overhang filled with red sponges and coralline algae

Postcard from the Reef – Trumpetfish

Another very common species on Hawaiian reefs, one commonly seen by snorkelers and divers alike. The trumpetfish can be either bright yellow or silver with dark markings around the tail. Either way an interesting and handsome fish…

Trumpetfish
A bright yellow trumpetfish (Aulostomus chinensis) at Eel Cove

Postcard from the Reef – Frogfish

Six years I have been diving the reefs of the Big Island. Despite this I have never seen a frogfish. They are rare, but not that rare!

A flashing light catches my attention from across the open coral. Pete is signaling, he does not do that often, when he does it is usually worthwhile. Pete had been working one wall while I worked the other side of a small channel in the reef. So far I had found nothing unusual.

There it was, a bright yellow frogfish just at the edge of a small plate of coral. Not only a nice find, but a nicely posed one as well, conveniently placed for photography. By the time Pete and I had finished photographing this fish it probably had sunburn.

I owe Pete a beer.

Commerson's Frogfish
Commerson’s Frogfish (Antennarius commerson) at 25′ depth