Rainbow Runner, a Picture at Last!

   The Rainbow Runner is not an uncommon fish.   On his last day here in Kona, Sandra and I went for a swim with Andrew and got a quick look at  school of these fusiform blue fish.  They aren't recorded frequently by snorkelers,  however, as they occur in deeper water and swim by too fast for identification.  Unless you know what you are looking at.

In size and shape, they remind me of fuliliers.

Scissortail Fusilier,  Bali 2009

That group of fish with the military sounding name are similarly 9 inches or so in length, sleek and brightly colored.  This is just a guess, but  I'll bet if you put one of the blue species of fusilier (Lunar Fusilier, for example) and a Rainbow Runner on a table, you would swear they are the same sort of fish.  Rainbow Runners are jacks and fusiliers are related to snappers.  More over, fusiliers swim in strict schools, turning in parade ground unison.  Observing a school of these colorful fish from above is one of the joys of south sea fish watching.  By contrast, a  group of rainbow runners shoots by in an instant of complete pandemonium.

     Because Rainbow Runners swim so fast and erratically, I had not succeeded in taking an acceptable picture.  Today I was swimming in front of the palace.  I had been admiring a Yellowfin Surgeon, noticing the

Rainbow Runner

differences between the yellowfin and the more common Palani.    (Both have yellowfins, but only the Palani has a yellow spot on the caudal peduncle...the beginning of the tail.)  I had the camera in hand, preparing to photograph the yellowfin, when suddenly a riot of five Rainbow Runners careened onto the scene.  Just as suddenly, they veered into a nearby cleaning station and all five came to a virtual stop.  For this species a virtual stop means that they were swimming slowly enough that the pair of Cleaner Wrasses was able to catch up with them and do their job while the runners swam slowly.

    The Rainbow Runners didn't get that completely stoned look that so many reef fish adopt at a cleaning station, hanging completely still in a  strange attitude.  But they swam slowly enough, and I was close enough, that I was able to squeeze off a few shots while the cleaning progressed.  So, ladies and gentlemen, may I present my first decent pictures of the Wiley Coyotes of Kailua Bay.

Rainbow Runners Being Cleaned, Kailua Bay 2013

Beep, beep,
jeff