ID Central

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I'm diving in St. John USVI.. 12 feet of water 80 degrees..  I only brought my "In-A-Pocket" with me.. saw this today and would appreciate an ID..  (reef.org is super..)

Thanks... jay

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Just as I was entering the water at Honokeana Cove to snorkel with the turtles, about a week ago, when I looked down and saw this fish.  At first I thought it was an octopus by the way it seemed to be slithering over the rocks away from where I was standing in about 3 ft. of water.  I lifted my head to tell my wife there was an octopus in the water.  When I put my head back in the water, I realized it was not an octopus but some kind of strange barbed fish.  I have checked some books on reef fish and it may be some kind of Lionfish, but I'm not really sure.  It appeared to be about 16 inches.  I am hoping someone can give me a positive ID on it.

Thanks!

Dan

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I need a positive id on this small eel.  I found lots of them on Socorro Island and Roca Partida and the boiler on San Benidicto.  Thanks

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It's a smal eel, not like the yellow margin eels of the Cocoa Islands.  My best guess is a jeweled moray or a broadhead moray.  Any other ideas?  I found several at Roca Partida.

Pam

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Apologies for the lousey photo but that's perhaps why I'm drawing such a blank on identifying this wee beastie. I can't recall the size but surely even with the features so out of focus this looks like it has to be a pretty easy ID .... but I can find nothing in the guides or on-line. The closest I can come is a transitioning initial to terminal phase Clown Wrasse (Halichoeres maculipinna) - this was actually suggested by an acquaintance on another forum but neither of us can come up with any clinching identification.

Help would be much appreciated - I'm pretty new to this but (as a life-long birder) this new world is really very exciting! And the fact that I might (even with my all too infrequent snorkelling trips) manage to actually help with field surveys is a real bonus.

All the best,

Paul

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I was one hour on snorkel into an herbivore survey at the Kahekili Reef, West Maui, and an unknown critter came slithering across the coral.  My camera was clipped to a utility belt and it took me a few seconds to swing it up to my face.  I've learned I may have only one chance to capture a photo, so I took a quick photo from the surface before free diving onto a fish (attached). I was only halfway down in 15 feet of sea water when the critter dove head-first into the sand and quickly disappeared.  Two photos -- from the surface, and a tail shot -- are the only evidence I have.  

My heart was pounding because it looked like a sea snake, but only the Yellow Bellied Sea Snake is rarely seen in the coastal waters of the main Hawaiian Islands.  The photos confirm it was not a sea snake, though friends who SCUBA in Palau and the Phillipines think the photo looks like a Laticauda colubrina - Yellow Lipped Sea Snake.  My tail shot confirms a pointy ending, not a paddle-like tail, so it is not a sea snake. FishBase and Keoki & Yuko Stender's Marine Life Photography websites confirm it is the Leiuranus semicinctus - Saddled Snake Eel.

Kahekili Reef is an amazing low-profile reef in front of a West Maui development that we are trying to save by letting the fish and urchins "naturally" graze down the algae, and is now a Marine Protected Area.

Coral Rick

See:  http://www.hawaii.edu/kahekili/home.html, http://mauioceanbloggers.blogspot.com/2011/07/kahekili-hope-spot-for-hawaii.html

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I am amazed I saw this tiny (two-inch) transparent fish.  I amazed I was able to photograph it.  I am so proud of the Photoshopping.  To me, all tiny fish are blennies or gobies.  I am guessing goby.  And, after sifting through the interactive DVD, I am guessing pallid goby.  Am I right?

January 18, 2012, Molasses Reef, Key Largo, FLorida, depth 27 feet, bottom temperature 72 degrees Fahrenheit.

Sorry, no photo.  When one goes shrimping in the Upper Keys on a cold wintry night, the surface is alive with eels.  They seem brownish, no pattern nor bright color.  They are usually the thickness of a pencil or a little thicker, and, if you stretched one out, I guess it would be 10 inches to two feet.  Can you tell me what kind of eels these are?

Thank You,

Marty Dick

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I feel comfortable the top photo is a porgy.  Is it a saucereye porgy?  How can I tell?

The bottom photo reminds me of a harlequin bass, but it doesn't look like any in the interactive DVD.  What is it?  What are the distinguishing characteristics?

Molasses Reef, buoy M-14, December 30, 2011, depth 20 feet, bottom temperature 75 degrees Fahrenheit.  The porgy was about seven-inches long; the bottom-photo fish about half that size.

Thank You,

Marty