Angelfish are represented in the Caribbean by eight species, including some of the largest and most gregarious angelfish found anywhere in the world. Because they are active by day and inhabit the shallow reef waters that scuba divers visit, they are among the tropical reef fishes most often seen in the Caribbean. Angelfish vary in size from the tiny cherubfish to the largest of the family, the gray angelfish.
In particular, divers encounter French and gray angelfish that become habituated to human
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presence and may accompany divers for extended periods of time. Divers often see three other members of the family— the blue angelfish, found mainly in Florida and Bahamian waters; the spectacular queen angelfish; and the hybrid of these two species, the so-called Townsend angelfish— but their behavior is more retiring, like that of most angelfishes.
The smallest Caribbean angelfish, the cherubfish, is found in shallow reef areas. It is a shy, furtive species that inhabits a specific reef territory it patrols in
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bursts of motion, darting in and out of coral crevices.
The rock beauty is one of the most easily spotted angelfish in the Caribbean because of its striking colors. It changes from a predominantly yellow juvenile with a black spot, to a predominantly black adult with a yellow face. This species keeps to a home area of the reef as a juvenile, but seems to forage into wider areas of the reef as it matures.
The shift in colors from juvenile to adult stage is a remarkable feature of the angelfish. Juvenile
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French and gray angelfish, for example, with their broad yellow vertical bars and luminous blue margin on their pectoral fins, bear only a slight resemblance to the adult. The juvenile queen angelfish has the bright blues and yellows that evolve into the adult’s colors.
Angelfish primarily feed on sponges, though they also eat tunicates, anemones, some algae, and the polyps of corals. Because sponges absorb and concentrate pollutants, angelfish may die off even when other fish are unaffected.
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Barracuda
While several species of the barracuda family are known in the Caribbean, the most common and easily observed throughout the region is the great barracuda. It may grow to a length of seven feet and is capable of tremendous speed.
The great barracuda is one of the most powerful predators of other fishes in the Caribbean and indeed throughout the world. As the fish matures it develops the prominent bars running along the length of its body. Black blotches also appear from an early development
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stage; some people believe that these blotches are related to periods when the barracuda is particularly likely to carry ciguatera. Although there is no factual basis for this belief, few people in the Caribbean eat the fish because it nearly always has black blotches on its body. Barracuda are, however, widely eaten in the Pacific.
As the barracudas mature, they appear around the reef as individuals. But as juveniles they may form schools of up to several hundred fish. Great barracuda are probably nocturnal feeders, but
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they have been reported to take fish during the day.
Great barracudas may be drawn to bright, shiny objects that simulate the flashing of small prey fishes, and sometimes they may attack such objects. Reports of attacks on divers were once prominent in documents such as the U.S. Navy divers’ manual, but few incidents of attacks on swimmers or
divers are recorded today.
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Basslets
The basslets, or fairy basslets, are found only in the tropical western Atlantic. They are not related to and should not be confused with species of the groupers well known in the Pacific that may also be called basslets.
Nine species are known in the Caribbean and Bahamas. These small fishes are a favorite of scuba divers and photographers because they are brightly colored and their behavior is fascinating. They swim in aggregations in the water column, where there is a good supply of plankton on which to feed. The
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royal gramma, is a popular aquarium fish and one of the most commonly seen and wide-ranging basslet species in the Caribbean.
Another species we photographed in the Caribbean, the blackcap basslet, is small and energetic. It prefers deeper waters along coral precipices and the edges of walls, where it feeds on plankton in flowing water.
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Bigeyes
Of the four species of bigeyes found in the Caribbean, only the glasseye snapper, not actually a snapper, is common. Growing to about six inches in length, glasseyes are nocturnal hunters like the squirrelfishes and soldierfishes. Like these members of the Holocentridae family, the glasseye is primarily red with a silvery pattern underlying its color. The eyes of the glasseye are much larger than those of the squirrelfishes. The glasseye is almost always solitary and likes to hide in recesses or under overhangs
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during the day, when it is most often seen. The glasseye snapper is circumtropical.
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Blennies
To the casual observer, blennies seem much like gobies. But the two groups are not closely related. Blennies may show sexual dimorphism in color and in fin development, and while they may be territorial and have complex sexual-display behavior, they do not build nests. They may have elaborate fin structures, like this quillfin blenny or the diamond blenny.
Perhaps 40 species of blennies are found in the Caribbean. One group of blennies not found in the Caribbean has fangs and is able to bite chunks out of the fins
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and sides of larger fishes. Blennies tend to be bottom-dwellers like gobies, but some, like the redlip blenny shown here, inhabit rocky areas of swift currents. The saddled blenny, another of the more easily seen blennies, is found throughout the Caribbean.
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Boxfish
The boxfish are an odd family of fish whose external bony skeletons are easily distinguishable. Their body is box like and they swim very slowly, relying on their armor for protection. Many divers confuse them with the various puffer or porcupine fishes, to which they are related.
One group, that includes the cowfish, has two forward projecting spines on the head. A second group lacks these horns. They feed on detritus, living material in the water, and hunt by blowing a stream of water out of their
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mouths into sandy areas to expose worms and other burrowing food items. Some species, especially the smooth trunkfish, produce a toxic slime, and these fishes should not be added directly into an aquarium with other fish. Once acclimated, they seem to pose no problem.
The honeycomb cowfish, with its distinct geometric patterns, fan-shaped caudal fin, and noticeable horns, is an amazing sight as it glides smoothly along the reef. Seen in profile, it might be confused with a filefish, but from any
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other angle, the quadrilateral boxy shape of its body is unique. They are extremely wary of divers. We have rare footage of a juvenile cowfish, taken on the reef at St. Lucia, that looks like a yellow-colored die from a children’s board game. Its diaphanous fins are barely visible; one wonders how this little animal manages to navigate all of the reefs’ hazards and grow to an adult stage.
Of the trunkfishes, the smooth trunkfish is most common, although we were able to film the spotted trunkfish in the Cayman
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Islands as well. Unlike the cowfish, the trunkfish will allow themselves to be observed by a cautious diver for extended periods. Like wrasses, they sometimes hunt in combination with goatfish, when searching for food.
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Butterflyfish
Butterflyfish are one of the best known and most loved tropical reef fish in the world and among the most popular aquarium fishes. Their highly compressed, disk-shape bodies, bright colors, and lifelong pair-bonding behavior make them one of the most easily observed reef fish.
Unfortunately, the variety of butterflyfish in the Caribbean is limited, compared to their presence in the rest of the world’s ocean systems. With only five species commonly found in Caribbean waters, divers have less opportunity to
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enjoy them. In general, Caribbean butterflyfish are neither as large as those in Pacific waters, nor are their populations as significant a part of the reef community as in other oceans.
Foureye and banded butterflyfish occur from New England to Brazil, both are common in the Caribbean. The lovely spotfin, which may have a very dark mark on the dorsal edge of its body, typically appears at night or in reef waters below 100 feet in the Caribbean, though elsewhere it is common in shallow waters.
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The longsnout butterflyfish, the smallest species of the family in the Caribbean, is reminiscent of the forcipiger group of longnosed butterflyfish common in Indo-Pacific waters, and is less often seen because it occurs most commonly in deep water.
All butterflyfish are often seen in pairs, but in the Caribbean it is unusual to see the closely imitative pair behaviors common in the Indo-Pacific. Butterflyfish generally feed along reefs, and across extended ranges, although some, like the spotfin and longsnout,
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have home territories. They eat live corals, tubeworms and anemones.
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Conger Eels
The conger eels are less known to divers than the morays. Most occur in deep water and on mud and sand bottoms, but a few enter reef areas where they can be observed. Where morays inhabit holes and crevices, conger eels make their own burrows.
The most common members of the conger family are the various garden eels also found throughout the world. These extremely shy eels prefer sandy bottoms and sometimes form vast colonies. They create burrows for shelter, and stand poised, their tails hidden
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in the burrows, snapping up food in the currents that pass over the colony. Often overlooked by divers, these harmless eels must be approached from the bottom—and they may never be approached closely without their retreating to their burrows.
The rarely filmed manytooth conger is, like the moray, an aggressive toothed eel that hunts for live prey. This rare footage shows the manytooth taking a swimming fish and retreating to its burrow, where it swallows its prey whole. Like most conger eels, and
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unlike the morays, it has prominent pectoral fins behind its opercular openings.
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Damselfish
Damselfish are the most common if not the best known reef fish throughout the world. The family is well known to divers and snorkelers. Although popular with some aquarists, they are often shunned because of their pugnaciousness and propensity to nip fins. Some species are strongly territorial, inhabiting a specific reef territory, which they defend from both browsing fishes and inquisitive divers. It is not uncommon to feel a sharp peck on the leg or arm when swimming too close to a patch of reef they inhabit; almost
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every nook and cranny on any reef has resident damselfish. Like so many other families, damselfishes are not well represented in the Caribbean, with only about a dozen common species.
Most of the damselfishes common in the Caribbean occur widely in the western Atlantic, and one, the sergeantfish is circumtropical. Sergeantfish are represented in the Caribbean by the sergeant major, which may vary in coloration from bright black-and-white bars with a patch of yellow, to a dirty gray with black stripes,
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especially during mating. The brown chromis, often olive-green in color, is another signature damselfish of the Caribbean reef. It occurs in schools that feed close to protective reefs, or on coral outcrops that afford shelter from currents, and in waters laden with plankton.
The yellowtail damselfish, rather large and dull in the adult stage, is a fish most divers will recognize in its juvenile stage because of the bright jewel-like fluorescent spots on its body. At this stage, it feeds mainly on coral polyps, whereas
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the adults crop algae. The beaugregory is another Damselfish with lovely, bright juvenile stage coloration that matures to a rather dirty brown-and-yellow combination. The blue chromis is also an often recognized and colorful damselfishes of the Caribbean. The bicolor damselfish has prominent yellow body coloration during some stages of life. The threespot damselfish, with its bright-yellow juvenile stage, becomes a black adult that may have three prominent white spots on its body.
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Dolphins
Dolphins, once commonly seen in the Caribbean, are now rarely sighted by divers; the most frequent observations are made in the Bahamas and Belize. Dolphin swims are possible at a training center for commercial aquariums in Honduras adjacent to Anthony’s Key Resort.
This footage of spotted dolphins at Ambergris Cay in Belize demonstrates the curiosity and inquisitiveness of these lovely mammals. In the past, dolphins would accompany swimmers, snorkelers, and even divers for extended periods of
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time. Now, however, pods of dolphins are much more wary.
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Drums
Most drums occur in muddy bays, estuaries and along coast lines. Only a few species occur on or around coral reefs. They live in a fixed area of sand, reef, rocks, or wrecks. Drums are not readily seen during the day but are frequently seen at night patrolling an area of about one square meter, close to the bottom and near protective cover.
The three most common species in the Caribbean are the spotted drum, the jackknifefish, and the highhat. The jackknife fish occurs in areas ranging from deep reef
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areas to shallow bays and lagoons, whereas the spotted drum seldom occurs away from the coral reef. The juvenile stages of this family are a particular delight to divers and photographers because of their extraordinarily long dorsal and caudal fins, and because of their vivid, black-and-white stripes. Despite their seeming fragility, the juveniles are found in areas of surge such as rock overhangs or caverns.
The metamorphosis from delicate juveniles to the more subdued colors of the adult is unremarkable
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in all but the spotted drum species, in which the adult is as flamboyant as the juvenile. The juvenile jackknife fish has a slight greenish cast, and is shown here making the regular rounds of its territory, feeding on invertebrates it finds in the sand. While adults rarely appear together, we have observed schooling behavior in the highhat species.
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Dwarf Seabasses
The Serranidae is a diverse family that includes groupers, hinds, coral trout, and dwarf seabasses. We treat several of these groups separately in this volume of OceanLife. The 17 species of the Serranidae family that are grouped into the subfamily Serraninae are known as the dwarf seabasses because they grow to only a few inches in length. They live close to the reef or in reef-grass flats near the shore.
The most common species are the harlequin bass and the tobaccofish. Several other species can
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be seen, however, they look superficially like juvenile parrotfishes or wrasses, so the casual observer may overlook this ubiquitous group of fishes.
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Eagle Rays
The eagle rays are a group of large rays that swim in the open water and feed on molluscs and clams they find on the ocean bottom. Like the stingrays, they have spines and will rest on the bottom for extended periods of time. However, few cases of eagle rays injuring swimmers or waders have been recorded. The lovely spotted eagle ray, whose graceful swimming style has made it a favorite of divers, is now rarely seen in much of the Caribbean.
The eagle ray may be solitary or appear in groups of two or three; it
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has also been observed in groups of more than 100 during the nonbreeding season. It is a circumtropical fish. Eagle rays appear to patrol large areas of reef and ocean on a regular basis; they return habitually to same resting spot. These three rays at New Providence in the Bahamas, repeatedly circled a reef area the size of a football field.
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Filefishes
The Balistidae family, known commonly as the leatherjackets, includes two subfamilies: triggerfishes and filefishes. We treat the two groups separately for purposes of identification, while recognizing that they now both belong to the Balistidae. Both groups swim primarily by using their long, sinuous dorsal and anal fins. The triggerfishes have a second dorsal spine that locks the fin into an erect position, hence the “trigger” name; the filefishes have a slender first dorsal fin that they may make erect but not lock into place. Both
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groups undergo dramatic and swift color cycling during important behaviors such as mating or defense. When threatened during the day, most filefishes escape into narrow crevices within the reef, while many species of triggerfish will swim away. Both groups are omnivorous.
Ten filefish species are found in the Caribbean, of which we filmed four frequently seen species. The best-known and largest, the scrawled filefish, is also circumtropical. Its daytime colors of vivid green, gray, and blue become
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bland at night, its dot-and-dash patterns are always visible.
The orangespotted filefish is superficially similar to the larger whitespotted filefish, whose color cycling is much more active, ranging from a solid white, to yellow with white spots, to yellow and brown, as well as a number of intermediate shades.
One of the smallest of this group, the slender filefish, is almost impossible to film, as it likes to hang vertically in dense gorgonian fronds. It has an appendage of flesh on its dorsal
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side known as a dewlap, which it flares out in behavioral displays.
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Flounders
The peacock flounder is one of many of the so-called left-handed flounders found in the Caribbean. Growing to more than one foot in length, it is found on all types of bottoms but prefers smooth sandy sea bottom. It feeds on both small fishes and invertebrates in the sand. The larval stage of this flatfish has eyes on both sides, but as it matures one eye migrates toward the other; the blind side of this flounder always faces the bottom.
The peacock flounder can vary its skin pigmentation to closely
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match the bottom on which it lies. Its colors may range from a vibrant blue and brown to gray and white variegated patterns. The male has a pronounced “upper” pectoral fin. The flounder remains still until approached or touched, then it scuds along the bottom toward safety. The peacock flounder may bury itself with rapid, undulating motions , or it may simply alight on a substrate and immediately adopt the appropriate coloring. There seems to be no limit to how frequently these flounders can modify their pigmentation,
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although smaller specimens do not seem to change their colors as frequently as do adults.
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Frogfishes
Seven species of frogfish can be seen in the Caribbean. But because of its preferred hiding place on sponges, only one species the longlure frogfish is observed with any frequency by divers. All of the Caribbean frogfishes possess a tiny appendage, a modified dorsal spine, that grows out of their head; they use this spine as bait, luring small fishes to within their reach.
Although they are called fishes, frogfishes actually walk more than they swim. The jerky motion that constitutes swimming for these monstrously cute little fishes is
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one of the great delights of the underwater world. Once they have picked out a suitable sponge or other hiding surface, frogfishes may reside in the same spot for years. They spend their daylight hours sitting quietly on their home sponge, and hide in the reef at night. A frogfish usually chooses a sponge the same color as its body, although it is not uncommon to see incongruous color combinations such as this one. When the colors match as they do here, the porous skin of the frogfish allows
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it to blend perfectly with the sponge.
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Goatfishes
One of the most aptly named ocean fishes, the goatfish is a prodigious hunter capable of creating murky waters over extensive areas of a reef solely due to its food-gathering technique. All of these long, cylindrically shaped fishes have a set of long, fleshy barbels that they may fold underneath their head when not hunting. When goatfishes search for food, the barbels are dropped into sand or rocky bottom, where they vigorously probe. When food is discovered, the goatfish swallows the covering sand, which it then ejects
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from its gills. It can also move rocks with its strong jaws.
Throughout the world, divers commonly see goatfishes, such as this yellow goatfish, hunting in association with wrasses, tilefishes, groupers, or even jacks—usually in groups of three, with each fish taking advantage of a different food stirred up by the goatfishes’ search. The spotted goatfish, another of the four goatfish species found in the Caribbean, is warier than the larger yellow goatfish. At night the spotted goatfish takes on a reddish or blotched
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appearance and often rests alone on open sandy bottoms.
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Gobies
There are more species of gobies than of any other marine fish family. Gobies include the smallest of all fishes. Small, generally slender, and blunt-nosed, gobies inhabit a diverse range of areas, including estuaries, coral reefs, mud or sandy bottom, and even sponges and other living creatures. They may dig burrows, live symbiotically in the dens of small shrimp, or occupy the tunnels of sponges.
Several species, like this peppermint goby, live on corals. Generally, gobies build nest areas
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and attend the eggs until they hatch. Here we have included only the few species of gobies most likely to be seen by the scuba diver; the neon goby and yellowline goby, for example, live on the surfaces of sponges and corals and are often visible to the casual observer.
Several species of gobies may act as cleaner fishes in the Caribbean, especially for those smaller fishes for which the juvenile Spanish hogfish or wrasse is too large The bridled goby, another of the common gobies of the
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Caribbean, inhabits sandy bottoms and is shown here ingesting sand, which it chews in its jaws, retaining tiny invertebrates; it then spews the unwanted sand out of its gill slits.
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Groupers
Groupers are among the Caribbean’s larger fishes, and they include important commercial and recreational species. Despite overfishing, which has diminished their numbers significantly, groupers are nevertheless ever-present on Caribbean reefs. Giant members of several genera are rare due to constant human predation. Groupers are especially vulnerable to spearfishing. They live at all depths of reef waters and eat a wide variety of fishes and invertebrates. While larger species tend to be solitary except for seasonal
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breeding aggregations, medium-size groupers are often seen in groups of two or three.
The jewfish, shown in this footage from the Bahamas chasing reef sharks away from a meal, was in the past found throughout the Caribbean. It may grow up to six or seven feet in length and nearly 700 pounds in weight. The Nassau grouper is found throughout the region. It is most commonly observed in the color phase shown here, although it may appear in a more uniformly dark color. Black groupers, like this one photographed
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in Belize, also have variable color and similarly wide distribution in the Caribbean.
The tiger grouper, similar to the coral grouper or coral trout known in the Pacific, is one of the most strikingly patterned of the Caribbean groupers. The yellowfin is a similar large grouper species with two distinct color phases; individuals from deeper water are much redder. Yellowfins and black groupers are both known to have toxic flesh that causes ciguatera when eaten.
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The rock hind, graysby, and coney are so evident today that these species are among the signature fishes of the Caribbean reefs. The coney has several color phases all yellow, golden orange to reddish, and bicolored dark brown above and cream-colored below but always retains the small blue spots on its body and the black marks on its chin and on its back (in front of the caudal fin). The rock hind and the red hind are common as well; like the coney, they live in the shelter of reef corals.
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Grunts
The grunts and snappers are one of the two most notable of the perch-like or spiny rayed fish that inhabit Caribbean waters, especially the reef benches, turtle grass flats, and current-swept channels where small mixed schools of grunts and snappers congregate. In clear water areas, such as the channel off Cancun or the crystal waters of the Bahamian canyons, huge schools of grunts dissipate and mix with snappers. Grunts gather on the reef by day in huge shoals for shelter, at dusk
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they leave to forage on surrounding grass flats and open sand areas.
Of the grunts, the most commonly seen and recognized in the schools are: the French grunt, which is predominantly yellow with blue lines, and the bluestriped grunt, which is predominantly blue with yellow lines and a black tail. Several other striped grunts such as the smallmouth, the striped, and the Spanish grunts are commonly seen. The Small schools of French and the bluestripe hang in areas of slight current, blending, merging, and separating; camouflaged
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by the golden light of the Caribbean’s waters or hiding among the wavering fronds of gorgonians.
As is the case with Snappers, several plainer silver-bodied grunts escape the notice of the more casual observer because of their similarities: the white grunt, the margate, the sailors choice, and the caesar grunt.
In the grunt family there are some highly unusual members, such as the furtive cottonwick. This species distinctly dislikes attention and avoided our cameras
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in several countries’ waters. An unusual member of the grunt family, the porkfish, is easily one of the Carribean’s most noticeable fish. Porkfish may be solitary, or may appear in pairs, even trios—but they are rarely seen in the schools for which other grunts are known. They are also unlike their more sedentary relatives in that they patrol a specific area, especially liking waters at the edge of reefs or along drop-offs. Also they do not leave the reefs at night. Young porkfish engage in removal of parasites from other fish.
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Flying Gurnard
This family is represented by only one species in the Caribbean. Just six other species are recognized in the rest of the world, and they all look much alike.
Superficially similar to several other fish families, including the flatheads, the flying gurnard is a bottom-dweller possessing huge, colorful pectoral fins that may be extended while it swims, giving the fish the appearance of flying hence its name. This pair, filmed in St. Lucia, are resting and swimming in turtlegrass flats, where gurnards create shallow nests in
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the muddy bottom. The flying gurnard feeds on small fishes and invertebrates. It depends upon camouflage to hide itself from predators and divers, and it flies away when threatened.
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Hamlets
This group is a lovely, if somewhat difficult to observe, genus of 11 species of the Serranidae family. They occur exclusively in the tropical western Atlantic. We have recorded nearly all members of this shy group of fish found in the Caribbean. The hamlets are functionally hermaphroditic, but pair off to spawn, and may alternate male and female roles. Despite the close similarities of many Caribbean species of hamlets, and much discussion of hybridization among them, it is now known that this does not occur. Unlike other
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members of the grouper family, hamlets swim with their pectoral fins. Most groupers use their caudal fin. As you can see, they vary tremendously in color, but maintain the same shape across the group.
The most common hamlet seen throughout the Caribbean is the barred hamlet. The black hamlet is quite distinct from the blue hamlet, although the former may take on a bluish cast. The yellowtail appears to be a hybrid of the black and goldentail hamlet, but is not. The yellowtail’s black body, distinctive
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yellow tail, body margin, and fins make it one of the most recognizable fish on the reef. The indigo hamlet is perhaps, the second most common species, and quite similar to the barred hamlet, except that the bars on its face are a deep blue. In our experience, the butter hamlet is the most difficult to observe due to its low representation on the reef. Its color patterns closely resemble those of other common reef fish like the blue hamlet and blue chromis.
Shy, like most of the groupers, the hamlets are not ready subjects
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for photography, particularly when they notice the diver. They are not common in the aquarium trade. They all forage for invertebrates and small fishes along the coral reef. Because they don’t seem to have a set pattern of reef or territorial patrol and because of their retiring habits, little is known of their home range or biology.
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Hogfishes
Hogfishes are included within the wrasse family despite their external physical differentiation from most other wrasses. We have broken them out for separate treatment here only to aid in identification. The largest member of the group, the common hogfish, is a solitary and prodigious hunter seen throughout the Caribbean. It displays an extraordinary range of colors, from its orange-and-white night coloration to the more frequently seen white-and-black-striped adult stage. It feeds on a wide variety of invertebrates and
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small fishes and is often observed, like the goatfishes, moving huge amounts of sand by blowing jets of water to rouse invertebrates hidden on the sea bottom, which it snatches as they arise.
Two other hogfish species the spotfin, with its red-and-yellow adult stage, and the more frequently observed Spanish hogfish are common in the Caribbean. They inhabit reef areas, although they are also seen hunting in association with goatfishes and other wrasses on sandy or rubbly bottoms.
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Jacks
The jack family is made up of nearly 150 species of pelagic fishes that are found around the globe, of which about 27 species inhabit the Caribbean. Considered sport fishes in the United States, jacks represent an important food source in the rest of the world.
The best-known of the jack species are those silvery, vertically compressed fishes with strongly forked tail fins in the genus Caranx; these include the horse-eye jack and the yellow jack, which form large schools in the Caribbean.
