MAY 23, 2009: GROTTO AND WING
Read MoreI often think back to my childhood days when I just HAD to have an aquarium. Now, who needs an aquarium when you can dive right into the ocean? You probably recognize Dory from FINDING NEMO. The blue, black, and yellow fish in the background are Palette surgeonfish (Paracanthurus hepatus). The three round ones are butterflyfish, with the two alike being Reticulated butterflyfish (Chaetodon reticulatus), and the one facing away from us in the lower middle being Ornate butterflyfish (Chaetodon ornitassimus). The two resting in the coral are Whitespot hawkfish (Paracirrhites hemistictis).
I turned over a large Sea cucumber to find these tiny Periclemines shrimp. They are very small, probably about as thick as a nickel. You can see the suction-cup feet of the bottom (turned up) of the sea cucumber. If you hold the sea cucumber in this position, the shrimp eventually wander around to the lower surface.
I couldn't help but catch a shot of these Coral hermit crabs (Paguritta harmsi), another tiny critter. These guys are true hermit crabs, but they find tubes of long-gone tube worms to live in instead of shells. They don't need to forage for food, since they eat detritus which settles on their feathery antennae. I believe that this is the best shot I have gotten of these guys. This is the last Saturday shot. The NEXT video starts our early morning (yawn) Lau Lau dive.
Strange bedfellows: Lemonpeel angelfish (Centropyge flavissima) are very timid, spending very little time exposed in such a way that one can get a worthwhile photo at all. Whitemouth morays (Gymnothorax meleagris), on the other hand, tend to spend most of their time in tunnels, or with most of their bodies in tunnels and their snouts sticking out, as you see this one doing here. I'm sure I have no other photo of these two species together.
We explored parts of Wing which we have not seen before, again, made possible by the calm conditions. Here is a nice crevasse with a white shell / coral bottom. At the beginning of the clip, you see Judy's tank through a hole in the rock above, then you will see Rose, Mary, and Judy along the bottom.