Category: Species

A sampling of what lives beneath the waves

Juvenile Bigeye Emporer

Sometimes you see a fish that is not familiar, asking yourself “What is that?” After so many dives I probably have seen one before, but have not paid any attention to that particular fish in the swirl of color and fish on the reef.

Then comes the challenge of identifying the photo. A first run through the book provided no answers. A second run, checking any families with similar body plans… Nothing. Great, it is probably juvenile that looks nothing like the adult… The adult photo is in the book. More browsing, this time on the Stender’s website. The website often has multiple photos of the same species, including the color variations that come with differing sex and age.

Yup, a juvenile bigeye emperor, it looks absolutely nothing like the adult…

Juvenile Bigeye Emperor
A juvenile bigeye emperor (Monotaxis grandoculis) at 30ft depth, Hoover’s Tower

Postcard from the Reef – Scorpion

I have found these fish in the daytime, usually deep inside a cauliflower coral and nearly impossible to photograph. By night they emerge to hunt. As with most scorpionfish, they are ambush hunters, sitting on the bottom and waiting for some hapless critter to come too close. Of course the habit of sitting still makes them ideal targets for a camera, they hold their ground even when the strobe goes off.

Cheekspot Scorpionfish
A cheekspot scorpionfish (Scorpaenodes littoralis) near the shore in 4′ of water, Mahukona

Fatal or Not

I had never before seen one on the reef, but I knew what it was immediately…

This thing could kill me!

It is odd to look at something so small and pretty and realize that it could be fatal to touch. There are three cone snails that feature a potentially lethal venom found on Hawaiian reefs, the textile cone (Conus textile), the banded marble cone (Conus bandanus), and the striated cone (Conus striatus oahuensis). All three feature similar markings, a sort of chevron pattern on the shell. I did not recall which one of the three I was looking at, but I knew it was one of them.

Then I see the legs.

Small red and yellow legs protrude from the shell, just barely visible underneath. No problem, the deadly snail is gone and something else has moved into the pretty shell. A hermit crab, appropriately enough a cone shell hermit crab.

With little to fear from a hermit crab I set the shell just so on the coral. I know that the crab will wait a few moments then emerge to right his shell, providing a perfect photo opportunity…

Cone Shell Hermit Crab
Cone shell hermit crab (Ciliopagurus strigatus) occupying the shell of a textile cone snail (Conus textile)