Blennies are one of my favourite fish. They are hard to find and very skittish, which makes it very hard to get a good photo.
The Red Lipped Blenny is in residence in this part of the Caribbean. They are very territorial, so do not move around much and are very shy. Their fins and bodies allow them to “hold” onto the reef as they do like some wave action in shallower parts of the reef. Love those eyelashes!
These crabs are very spider like, with their long legs, triangular shaped bodies and purple highlights. During the day they hide in tube sponges, under corals and inside anemones. They come out a night to forage for food.
Stoplight parrotfish are one of those fish that we identified with when we first started scuba diving. The males are a brilliant green colour with yellow and pink accents. They munch away with strong beak like jaws on algae on coral and sponges, often leaving teeth marks. Did you know that they poop out what they cannot digest, mainly coral they eat along with the algae, and that is what coral sand is made of!
The females are a blackish colour with red highlights.
Latin is so interesting……the Latin name for the Christmas Tree Worm is Spirobranchus Giganteus. Spirobranchus is so fitting for these little guys. Look at the cool spirals on this fellow!
These worms are found on hard corals and have a tube like body that goes down into the coral and two crowns that protrude from its body and “sit” on the coral. The crowns are used for respiration and to catch food. When startled, the crowns get retracted into the tubes. They come in a myriad of colours and are fun to go BOO! at.
The French Angel is one of our favourite fishes. It looks stunning, with its yellow highlights. Not as flashy as the Queen Angel, but more of a classic look. They can be as big as a dinner plate or larger and are quite thin in cross section. French Angels are seen in pairs mostly and stay within their territory, eating during the day and hiding at night.
We are always on the look out for juveniles which are mostly black with five yellow stripes. According to Wikipedia, the juveniles act as cleaner fish for a wide variety of species. I did not know this and will have to pay close attention next time we spot a juvenile.
Bonaire, the sleepy little dive island is changing. It has only been a couple of years since we were here last and the change is very visible and is happening very rapidly. There is new construction everywhere. Seems like the large resort syndrome has struck. Really there is still not much to do on the island but to dive and if you are not a diver you might be hard pressed to entertain yourself for a week but those out there doing the marketing have been selling their hearts out and there are more and more non divers on the island. There is still the wind surfing area on the windward side of the island and kite boarding has become a lot more popular. Unfortunately for the diving people, the kite boarders have completely taken over a couple of the dive sites but there are so many here I don’t think they are missed too much. Some folks rent scooters and traverse the island but that is only a days worth of diversion. There are a few feral donkeys and some flamingos worth viewing and the salt extracting operation is worth a look see, but the beaches are still not world class and I don’t see that ever being the case.
It is a bit sad that these changes are taking place. Bonaire is a divers paradise and I think the economy could do quite well by focusing on that. There is not much else here and one will never make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear so why alter direction and promote the island for something it is not. The all mighty dollar speaks again.
This little guy is a Pederson Cleaner Shrimp, and he loves to….clean! Fish, that is! They have brilliant blue and purple markings that makes them stand out on the reef, or in an anemone.
They will set up a cleaning station where fish will come, just like a car wash. The shrimp climb onto the fish and eat any parasites. They will even clean gill covers and inside a fish’s mouth. Will that be a wax and a buff too, ma’am?
As we are standing at the dive site called Red Slave, a Belgian lady starts chatting with us and we find out that there is a seahorse at this dive site. It is in 4 m of water on the sand, or near the edge of the sand. With the thoughts of finding a seahorse, we decide the waves coming into shore aren’t too bad and prepare to dive.
After entering the water from shore, we do our deep portion of the dive but save some air to search for the seahorse at the end of the dive. Coming across the sand section, we zig zag but find no seahorses. Back at the truck, we find out that the folks who parked next to us saw the seahorse! Even had a photo! We quizzed them about the exact location and decided to try again.
After a snack and the required surface interval we don our gear again and head into the water. This time we search for the prize at the beginning of the dive. (I’m actually thinking we spend the whole dive searching!) We zig zag and cross cross and work our way down the sand section parallel to shore. We aren’t finding anything that looks like a seahorse just the odd flotsam or jetsam.
Then, I spy what looks like a seahorse head right by a piece of vegetation and, sure enough, it is a seahorse! I wave madly at Murray, not taking my eyes off the wonderful creature. Murray finally sees my crazy waving and kicks over. We spend some time taking photos and watching it. Finally we decide we better leave it in peace, and continue with our dive.
Seahorses (according to Wikipedia) belong to the genus Hippocampus, which comes from Ancient Greek. Hippos, meaning horse, and kampus, meaning sea monster. Cool. Their heads look like horses and they swim upright, propelling themselves, rather slowly, by their dorsal fin.
A well known oddity about seahorses is that the male carries the eggs that the female has deposited into his pouch. He carries them for up to 45 days and then delivers the tiny, but fully formed seahorses.
Amazing creatures!
The Latin name for the Lettuce Sea Slug is Elysia Crispata, a much nice sounding moniker. This tiny critter looks like a bunch of lettuce, thus the name. I always thought it was a nudibranch, but, in fact, it is a gastropod mollusk.
Elysia Crispata eat green algae, some being digested and some being stored in the parapodia (fleshy lettuce leaf like appendages).
While diving the site called Oil Slick Leap, in Bonaire, we come across a myriad of these creatures and find them fascinating each time. They move so slowly and elegantly.
The Spotted Drum is found all across the Caribbean Sea. During the day it swims in patterns under a ledge, sticking to one area. At night, it will leave the ledge to feed on worms and crustaceans.
The juveniles have mostly black and white stripes, whereas adults have both stripes and spots. The dorsal fin on a juvenile is extremely long, but shortens in adulthood.
