The Juvenile Coral Blenny

   It's always easier to write a blog when there is a special fish or critter to feature.  Today we are lucky enough to have such a sighting to share.

   It was a lovely morning in Kona and I hitched a ride with Sandra down to Kahalu'u.  Immediately I knew something was amiss.  There was loud and repetitive guitar music emanating from the men's

The Hebrew Cone on the hunt.

changing room.  I could not help but poke my nose in, to find  there a fellow of forty some years, wearing a rough pair of cargo shorts and little else, His shaved head was the same bronze as his torso.  He wore a well trimmed mustache and a serious look as, seated upon the small wooden bench that had only recently been re-installed,  he hammered out the same blues progression over and over.  duh da duh da, duh da duh da. 

  My friend Vince, who holds down one of the chairs at the reef teachers desk, related that the gentleman in question had stated that his recording studio was closed due to the quarantine and the K Bay restroom was easily the next best thing.  Just the right bit of reverberation.

    Soon enough I left the music behind and hit the cool, clear water.  In the rocks not far from the entrance I found a Hebrew cone.  If you look carefully at this picture, I trust that you will see that tiny nub of a black tube protruding from the business end of the cone shell.  That is the siphon under which is poised the poison lance. This is the second cone that I have found hunting at Kahalu'u during the quarantine.  Prior to the quarantine I had never seen a hunting cone anywhere but at night in our Alii Villas aquarium,. So how cool is that?  And it begs the question, if a Hebrew cone is hunting, for whom does he search?  A Nazi nudibranch?

   After that bit of biology and political history, there was a lull in the action.  I made my way across the bay battling a modest current commensurate with the small amount of surf lapping against the Menhune breakwater.  Turning mauka, I floated with the current, all the while looking for something special.

The Juvenile Coral Blenny at first blush.

     I was just getting ready to make the turn north, into the middle of the bay when I floated over a small pinkish blenny with darker red spots. Although I had never seen this small fish before, I was fairly certain that I was looking at the juvenile of the coral blenny.

    We have seen coral blennies for as long as I have been swimming in Hawaii.  It was once called the short bodied blenny and it seemed, back in the day, that it was fairly uncommon.  For the last ten years at least, it has been quite common on the Ironman side of the pier. Not uncommon in lots of other spots, it is present  but not numerous at Kahalu'u.  As you have read the blog these many years, you may have noticed that baby fish do not always appear where the adults are the most common.

   The keikis of the reef are a curious group.  For those of you who live in the Pacific Northwest, as I once did, it is expectable that you will see calves and foals in the spring pasture.  And when you happen upon a fawn or a family of baby raccoons, it probably makes you sigh with pleasure.  At the same time, it does not strike you as ridiculously unexpected. With reef fish it is much more complicated.  There are some reef fish whose offspring are encountered regularly.  The keikis of  many of our common butterflyfish and parrotfish are seen regularly. But not all of them..  Every so often we see a baby fish that is so uncommon that we feel the sighting is a once in a lifetime experience.

The coral blenny peers out from his refuge.

  Many keikis are a smaller rendition of their parent, a perfect copy ten times smaller.  But a surprising number are quite different.  Some are so different, like the dragon wrasse and the red labrid, that were one ill prepared, he might think they were a different species.  As you see, the baby coral blenny is one of these fish.   

    And so it was with a sense of joy and wonder that I turned and readied the camera for my chance at this rare keiki.  As I prepared the camera, the current pushed me ten feet past the prize.  A few strokes got me a  bit closer to the blenny, who was perched on a patch of living coral.  I took one shot and moved closer still..  On my approach, he darted into a coral fenestration.  I swam up and took three pictures of him peering out at me. Hoping that this would be a brave and cooperative fish.  I let the current sweep me away, all the while looking for a good hand hold at a reasonable distance from the perch.  Luckily our new best friend was in an area with lots of living and not so lucky corals and I spotted a handhold about six feet from the perch.

Unicornfish and Cleaner Wrasse.  A lighter shade of pale.

    And you can see, the blenny returned to his exposed vantage and tolerated a cautious approach long enough for me to get a picture, at which point he lost confidence and darted back inside. This happened several times.  With each shot, I hoped for a picture in good focus. Finally I felt like I had enough and swam on.

    Out past Surfer's Rock I encountered a single cleaner wrasse working on an orange spine unicornfish..  It's a curious thing about getting cleaned.  It puts the fish in a different emotional state.  Undoubtedly there is a different mix of neurotransmitters exerting their effect and this is seen both in behavior, which is languid, and coloration.  Fishwatchers routinely refer to this as the fish "being stoned'. As you can see, this unicornfish was a lighter shade of pale.  Groovy.

   On that pleasing note, we tripped the light fandango and headed to the beach. 

   Back on shore, I met up with schmoopie, took a quick shower and headed in to get changed.  During my swim, the guitarist had not switched to Procol Harem, but was still hammering away on the same blues progression. 

Coral Blenny Juvenile, Kahalu'u July 2020

   The reef teachers were camped out inside the shelter.  I showed them my picture of the blenny and we corroborated it with the picture in the bible as interpreted by John Hoover. Juvenile coral blenny!  I then asked the multitude if any knew the movie Adventures in Babysitting. 

   No takers there, I located  my very own movie expert and advised, "Nobody leaves Kona unless they sing the blues." 

    And so it goes.  Stay one step ahead of the bad guys and maybe we'll meet in the Windy City you Thor's garage.

   jeff

Quarantinewhile.  If you can't see the coral blenny maybe you can see Adventures in Babysitting!