This past Saturday I saw this odd-shaped fish at a cleaning station at Honaunau Bay. It has at least three common names that I know of: scrawled filefish, scribbled filefish, and broomtail filefish. The binomial nomenclature for this fish is Aleuterus scriptus. It is a bizarre looking creature that is incredibly flattened, covered with electric blue dots and squiggles and has a tail that accounts for a third or more of its total length. I see these fish more frequently in the winter months here in Hawai'i. They occur singly, in pairs and sometimes in loose groups. Happy Diving!
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