Diving the Kona Coast: hawaiian cleaner wrasse

Showing posts with label hawaiian cleaner wrasse. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Convict Tang at Cleaning Station

A convict tang (Acanthurus triostegus) visits a cleaning station to have parasites and dead scales removed by a Hawaiian cleaner wrasse (Labroides phthirophagus) in a classic example of symbiosis.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Ornate Butterflies at cleaning station

First off, my apologies to anyone who might have been following this blog only to have me let it go for a couple months. Betty & I spent a good deal of the summer visiting with our kids & grandkids on the mainland. Once back, we got ready for company as my brother Chuck & his lovely bride Jeanette paid us a visit. Come early December, my Mom will be here to visit for a month. So it has been, and will continue to be, a little busy around here.

Yesterday was a beautiful and sunny day at Honaunau. I've been trying out different settings on my SeaLife DC-1400 and think I may have hit upon a good combination. Early in the dive I saw this cleaner wrasse working on an ornate butterflyfish pair. This was early in the morning and with previous settings my background would be stark almost totally black. But this gave me a more natural and softer blue background which I like better.

I hope you enjoy these photos and I'll try to post more shortly. Aloha!

Friday, January 13, 2012

New Year's Day Dive

Betty and I arrived at Honaunau Bay bright and early on New Year's Day to be the first SCUBA divers there in 2012. We were in the water by a few minutes past 7AM.

The water was a little cold with an average temperature of about 73 to 74F. At one point, both of our computers read 69F.

Because of a bad fiber-optic cable connection, my strobe wasn't firing so I had to rely on the camera's built-in flash which is pretty weak. But I managed to get some decent shots like this one of a Bandit Angelfish.

Bandit's aren't rare but they are uncommon. I considered this a good start to diving in 2012!

Several cleaning stations were quite busy for so early in the morning. I snapped this Ornate Butterflyfish at one such station. The cleaner wrasse is in the far side of this fish.

This Barred Filefish was also getting cleaned and held up his dorsal "trigger" so the wrasse could clean around it.

We were also lucky enough to catch this Day Octopus out in the open. This is the time of year that I've noticed a lot of mating activity among the octos.

At one point, the octopus blanched. I probably got too close for it to feel comfortable.

I took this picture of a male longfin anthias on the second dive when the cable was re-attached to the strobe.

Photo 2012 by Barry Fackler

This lurid Ringtail Wrasse was comfortable under a deep rock. There was also an Undulated Moray under there with it.

And that's the way it was on New Years Day for us. Hope your year is off to a good start also!

Monday, May 24, 2010

Dive Report for Saturday 05/22/10

A mild swell and gloomy skies greeted divers at Honaunau this past Saturday. For my first dive, I descended right off the "ALOHA" to visit the Longfin Anthias on their little coral head. I like to shoot photos of them every now and then trying out different approaches and angles.

The male remains as bold as ever and the females are getting less shy as well.

This female was feeding on some organic matter in the water column. It's not the greatest photo, but I like that it shows the fish with its mouth open ready to eat.

I caught this group of Yellowfin Goatfish being groomed by a Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasse.

I rarely can get a photo of a Yellowtail Coris as they move so swiftly and erratically. This time I was fast enough.

When I get a little frustrated trying to photograph fast-moving fish, I take a break and shoot something that moves really slowly, like this Needle-Spined Sea Urchin.

On the second dive I came across this Juvenile Commerson's Frogfish. This is the second one I've seen this month. Maybe there's a population boom going on. This one was sitting right out in the open in a field of rocks.

My report ends with this head-on shoy of a small Whitemouth Moray nestled in the coral. Have a nice week!

Friday, May 7, 2010

Belated Weekend Dive Report for 5/02/10

This was a busy week and I just didn't have time to post until now. Last week I had a really great pair of dives in Keauhou Bay with lots of big animal contacts that I just hadn't been getting at Honaunau recently.

One thing that is almost a constant in Keauhou Bay is the "baitball". A huge swirling mass of what appears to be thousands of Bigeye Scad or akule. The location of the ball changes but it's always somewhere in the bay. My camera's wide angle lens can't capture the whole "baitball" but I took this photo as I descended through its "eye".

At the bottom of the baitball it's almost as dark as night. Down there, big Greater Amberjacks cruise slowly waiting to make a quick lunge and pick off one of the akule.

Another thing you can almost always count on seeing at Keauhou Bay is Horned Helmet shells. They are usually half-buried in the sand, but I pulled this one out for a quick photo before replacing it in the sand.

I had very nice manta encounters on both dives and got a lot of photos. In these two, a big girl gets a thorough grooming by two Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasse. The Cleaning stations are perfect for good close-up photo opportunities.

Any encounter with Mantas is a great experience and in Keauhou Bay they tend to linger in discrete areas for long periods of time.

This Crown-of-Thorns was creeping along the rubble bottom and wasn't threatening any coral at the moment.

This Amberjack came up to me and circled several times. I was far from the baitball and the jack seemed to be heading out to the deeper waters outside the bay. Maybe he had his fill of akule.

I had another jack encounter with this Bluefin Trevally or omilu. This one was on the smallish side and followed me around for a few minutes. Sometimes smaller predators like to follow around bigger predators hoping for a chance to snatch some scraps. Maybe this fish thought I was a big carnivore.

These fish are mostly silver but have really cool-looking, neon-bright blue fins which make them a real treat to see.

That's all the photos I have for now. Hopefully, I'll get in the water this weekend and take some more!

Aloha

Friday, March 26, 2010

Prince Kuhio Day - Dive Report for Friday March 26, 2010

Today is Prince Jonah Kuhio Day, a state holiday in Hawai'i and yours truly had the day off which was spent wisely at the beach.

On the first dive I found this Common Bigeye sheltered under a ledge. Note the silvery sheen on its dorsal surface. These fish always stay tucked away during the daylight hours.

I always have a difficult time getting close enough to Bluespine Unicornfish to get good photos. They tend to swim off when you begin to draw close. These are very aptly named fish with a prominent horn projecting forward from between the eyes. They are a beautiful light blue color.

The photos above are of an Orangespine Unicornfish. Despite the name, these fish don't have a horn on their heads. Go figure! What they do have is an ornately decorated face that reminds me of a tribal mask. Like other unicornfish, it's hard for me to get close enough for a good shot.

Undulated Morays, like this one, are sometimes aggressive. This one was pretty shy, keeping tucked in its coral haven and foiling any attempt to get a clear shot.

I'm still seeing a lot of octopus and a respected divemaster has told me that this is their mating season (the octopi's, not the divemasters'). Anyway, I've tried to cut back on octophotos but this one was just to cooperative. I was particularly pleased with the one where it blanched mostly white.

A try at an artistic shot with a sunny background. The fish is a Threadfin Butterflyfish.

The turtles are all doing well today. The one in the top photo is getting a good cleaning by a gaggle of tangs.

Saddleback Butterflyfish are beautifully colored and are one of my wife's favorites. They usually travel in pairs but this one was going solo.

Ornate Butterflyfish cue up at a cleaning station awaiting their appointments with a Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasse.

On the second dive I saw yet another Day Octopus. I limited myself to this one photo. It was a nice day of diving. My only complaint is that the water is getting colder instead of warmer. Hopefully that will change soon.