Best of Mike #489

Parrotfish are so named because of their bright colors and fused teeth or “beaks”.

They come in  a variety of shapes, sizes and colors… especially when you factor in the changes that they go through as they mature through the juvenile, adult and supermale phases of their lives.

They use their beaks to scrape algae and polyps (their food) from coral and rocks. In the process, large amounts of coral are taken, ground in their gullets and excreted back to the environment as sand.

Some species of parrotfish have the ability to secrete mucus bubbles that envelop their bodies and protect them while they sleep. I believe that is what we are seeing here… as his coloring is significantly more muted than normal.

Best of Mike #487

We generally find these guys, Slender Filefish, in amongst the soft corals in shallow water.

At the end of each dive we like to do a 5 min Safety Stop in 15-20 ft of water.

This, by definition, is a whole lot to hanging around with nothing else to do but observe the movements of the small stuff around you.

This was the case when I found the first of these two guys… the lighter colored one.

In my efforts to get a clear pixture of him… I annoyed him enough that he moved from his soft coral to the one next door. 

That’s when we both came upon the guy who lived next door… the darker of the two. 

Honestly, I think the neighbor was pretty annoyed that we had dropped in. 

Best of Mike #486

We are home from our dive trip now. You probably thought that was the case when the daily posts stopped.

The good news is I still have lots of photos from the trip and the stories to go with them. 

So, the posts are not going to stop… just slow down a little. Probably just once a week and probably on Sundays.

I actually write these as a Blog and then repost them to social media. So if you ever want to see one again or see all that came before you started tuning in… you can find that Blog at… http://mtjboydscuba.blogspot.com

And yes that is a turtle butt… because why not.

Best of Mike #485

Yellowhead Jawfish are another of the little fish that live in a burrow on the sandy bottom in tropical waters.

They like to sit partially out of their hole and watch the world go by. Occasionally they will hover above that hole as if they were dancing. And will of course lower themselves all the way into that hole when they feel threatened.

The really interesting thing about these guys is that they are mouth brooders. The males will hold the eggs in their mouth until they hatch.

I’ve seen pictures of that but have not been lucky enough to get that shot yet myself.