Some of the most interesting fish and other creatures I saw were a frogfish, various colors of triggerfish, scorpionfish, porcupinefish (always smiling), spotted trunkfish, long-spine sea urchins, young turtles (Steve named this one “Joe”), arrow crabs (1” high conical body with 4” long legs), queen angelfish, french angelfish, peacock flounders, four life stages of drumfish, a supergiant midnight parrotfish, numerous blackbar soldierfish (they look like squirrelfish but with a black vertical bar behind the gills), and cleaning gobies in every nook. I spotted a caterpiller-like fire worm on our Town Pier dive.

Carl spotted and photographed the seahorse on the right.

There were many other kinds of fish, too, including the lovely blue chromis (I love the clouds of them); huge schools of brown chromis ranging from 5' of depth to 50', swimming just enough to cancel out slight currents so they can feed on particles that drift down to them; flowing streams of blue tangs that allowed me to join in; occasional black durgon schools; and schools of creole wrasses (larger than the chromis, also blue, but with some black and with yellow beaks).

There were several varieties of butterflyfish: foureye, sergeant major, and blackbar. Dusky blue sergeant major males guarding eggs at the Hilma Hooker’s propeller nipped at our fins to drive us away. In several spots I noticed juvenile angels that seemed to be guarding territory. They would try to drive my fingers away when I suspended them too close.

Snorkeling, I realized that a shimmer I noticed near the surface was actually a school of silvery, nearly transparent needlefish an inch below the surface. I also saw  a school of herring flash past (small, silver baitfish that travel fast).

To me, the prettiest small fish are bicolor damselfish (black front, white rear) and the juvenile 3-spot damselfish (bright yellow with a black spot on root of tail, swims 6", halts abruptly, swims, halts).

The best color events for me are the pure yellow gobies cleaning blue chromis. Several kinds of gobies provide cleaning service for other fishes. I saw several instances of blue chromis assuming the definitive “clean me” pose--hanging motionless in the water, head up and tail down (or the other way 'round)--in hopes of being noticed by the smaller cleaning fish, who would dart in to nip mites.

I think the cutest fish are the small trunkfish (pale with black spots or pattern markings, triangular in cross section, and all its little yellow fins awhirring). They motor along the sandy bottom, stopping to jet water at possible morsels, to clean and inspect them. Related are larger versions: cowfish and porcupinefish. Another snouty fish, 10" long and in several rich, earthtone colors is the filefish. We saw lots of slender filefish, too (they look like filefish miniatures and swim mostly head-down).

At Angel City we saw a pair of palometas, everpresent yellowtail snappers and schoolmasters, black margates with the dusky markings on their pale bodies (singly and in schools), and jacks.

Some bottom fish were sand divers, goatfish (they probe sandy bottoms with twin "beards"), and small sand-colored "bottom" gobies. We also saw green and spotted moray eels.

In the shallows near the Hilma Hooker someone spotted an octopus on a pale coral. It  slowly “flowed” and swam as we crowded nearby to observe. Its head was about six inches long, and its body about a foot across, web edge to web edge. It shoved away a video camera that was pushed in its face, and it changed colors from light sand to charcoal brown as it moved over and under different corals.

We saw an occasional barracuda. In fact, Gary W. bumped into one, when neither party was looking. They agreed to be more careful in the future! When I was snorkeling, one assumed surveillance duty 20' below me.

We saw several colors of anemonies--pink, blue, and white. They are so pretty with their fleshy fronds swaying gently in the current.

We saw ruby brittle starfish on a night dive, and there were often the skinny, hairy arms of sponge stars showing in the tubes of tube sponges. We saw long-spined sea urchins, cartoonish flamingo tongue snails, arrow crabs, fiddler crabs, a sponge crab, huge lobsters, and several banded coral shrimp. 

Other creatures we saw were varieties of worms, eels and crabs.

Christmas tree worms, a couple of inches tall, make an instantaneous retreat into their tubes if you get too close.

Garden eels are even more shy, making them extremely hard to photograph as individuals. Non-swimming community dwellers, they take no chances and retreat into their holes in the sand almost as you spot them, it seems. Even so, Carl was able to finesse the picture above of a “garden” of these shy creatures.

Other eels we saw were various morays and the snake-like sharptails (various colors, including light gray with pale diamondback markings).

We also saw several kinds of crabs: fiddler, coral sponge, and this batwing coral crab that Carl snapped.

PHOTO CREDITS

1. -Steve: turtle.
   

2. -Carl: scorpionfish, urchin, seahorse, christmas tree worms, garden eels, batwing coral crab.
   

3. -Irene: porcupinefish, french angelfish, peacock flounder, trunkfish, octopus, sharptail eel.