When you want to see the stars, find someplace dark
Photos from the wet
One of the prettiest fish on the reef, and one of the hardest to photograph. The neon colors just beg to be photographed. But these small fish never stop moving, darting rapidly about their post. An exercise in frustration and photos of empty coral…
With the appearance, size and color of a rose, the moniker Reef Rose seems to fit. In reality these are the eggs of a large nudibranch, the Spanish dancer. Not at all hard to spot, I had been finding these for years before actually seeing the parent.
I always make a point to check the egg mass closely. There is another nudibranch, a tiny parasitic nudibranch that eats the eggs of the Spanish dancer, a species unsurprisingly called the egg-eating nudibranch.
The most common nudibranch I find on Kohala reefs. These fellows are active in the daytime and often found in the open. They are generally found on walls, or in the many small caves that penetrate local reefs.
From a distance it looked like another common P. varicosa, a nudibranch I see all the time on the reef. Getting closer something was different. No protuberances, no yellow, what was it? Simply a juvenile that has not developed the full colors and pattern? Not knowing what it was I proceed to take a few photos of the critter.
Hitting the books it quickly becomes apparent, it was a P. sphingus I found and photographed. A new species for me! I carefully read through the descriptions of the various dorid nudibranch found in Hawai’i again. I need to look closer, there are some lookalikes to be aware of.
Hawaiian reefs are well studied, so much so that identification of what I find is often fairly easy. Various resources from popular guide books to professional papers list most of the species one is likely to encounter. There are also several excellent online references that I make regular use of.
There will be situations when identification is not quite so easy… There are critters that are difficult to identify from a simple photograph. Such is the case with this small group of cnidarians I found in a crevice. They caught my eye enough that I took the photo, but proved a bit more difficult when I hit the books. The best I can guess at is the family Protopalythoa, among the zoanthids. I have no need to collect a specimen and find an expert, thus these will most likely remain unidentified…
These fellows are fairly common along the Kohala Coast. They are also quite pretty, always worth a couple exposures…
A close relative of seahorses, pipefish are usually found sheltering in crevices or small caves. They are not uncommon sights for anyone who makes a habit of investigating the nooks and crannies of the reef…
A nice day for a dive, and a new species of nudibrach for me. At first I thought it might simply be a juvenile P. varicosa, but there were no yellow pertuberances. Getting back I hit the books, no doubt, P. rosans. New species! This fellow was in a cave at Puako I have entered a dozen times. Even in a place I have often explored I can find something new…
What is that? That is too big to be a nudibranch, but that is what it looked like. I could only see part of the beast looking into the cave crevice. Fortunately it turned out to be somewhat photophobic, the bright light flushed it out of the crevice into the cave…
I make a point to look for nudibranchs, pretty critters that are wonderfully photogenic. Looking into the nooks and crannies of the reef for nudibranchs also tends to turn up other tiny surprises.
This was not small!
While the typical nudibranch is one or two inches long, this fellow was the size of a dinnerplate! Adding to the wonder was the dance. As soon as the animal left the crevice it swam across the cave. I flashed Mark to get his attention, he was ready to leave the cave. I suspect he is glad he came back. Deb also wondered what we were still doing in the cave and came in to check on us. Thus we all got a good look at the dance.
After a few photos… OK, a lot of photos, I shepherded the fellow back into his crevice. Once I withdrew the light he settled down to stay in the darkness.
