Kahalu'u Shy with addendum

   Still feeling the glow of our encounter with the rare transitional phase Black Surgeonfish, Sandra and I headed down to Kahalu'u for a late morning swim.   The day was overcast, but conditions were pretty

Pugnacious Lagoon Trigger  "Whadda You Lookin' At?"

 good.  There was no current and the water was warm and, like the sky, only a little cloudy.

    Early in our swim I encountered an aggressive Rectangular Triggerfish.  About a week ago I had a similar experience, with one of these small fellows charging me, coming repeatedly within inches of my mask.  As I Prepared to capture an image of this interesting behavior, the Canon D10 informed me, "No Memeory Card".   As they say on Ork, "Shozbot!"
 
      The following day Sandra accompanied me for a swim and I spent an hour and a half swimming circles in K Bay trying to get a rise out of a triggerfish.  I did get one lagoon to approach me with his trigger up, but basically the exercise was a failure.  So today's encounter felt like vindication.  Sandra got to see the aggressive Rectangular Trigger (usually these guys retreat when you approach them).   I proceeded to let the triggerfish threaten me for several minutes while I took pictures. 

Argus Grouper waiting for his eel to go hunting.

   While Trigger and I were playing, Sandra got bored and swam a short distance away.   She grabbed my attention with a series of ladylike squeals through her snorkel.  She had discovered an Argus Grouper and a small Yellowmargin Moray hunting together.  They were looking nose to nose in the same opening in the coral.  I made it over in time to get a quick glimpse at this symbiotic behavior, but in the process I disrupted the dynamic duo.  The gorgeous young Yellowmargin receded into the coral and the grouper skulked around looking annoyed. You know how petulant those Argus Groupers can be. 

    Sandra came to the surface and said,  "That's what you get for pissing off the triggerfish."

    I didn't get a picture of this interesting behavior.  But I was immediately reminded of a letter to the editor from a reader named "evenhanded".  He was surprised that I hadn't seen more instances of eels hunting

Two Ornate Butterflyfish Out on a Date. 

with fishes, as he had witnessed this many times in Bonaire.   It is of interest that his examples were with members of the sea bass family, very much like the Argus Grouper.  The other pertinent point is that the government in Bonaire strictly protects all reef animals.  They actually make you buy a tag to explore the ocean.  There is no fishing.  You are not permitted to wear gloves.  The laws protecting the reef in Bonaire are the very antithesis of Hawaii laissez faire.  If our government gave the reef half the protection it receives in Bonaire, we would undoubtedly see all kinds of animal behavior.

    Following the eel grouper encounter we made the loop without seeing much else of interest, although I did snap the lovely picture of a pair of ornates you see above.    At this point, Sandra retired to the beach and I continued to swim for a little more exercise.

Square tail Filefish   Cantherhines sanwichensis, imm

   Having completed my supplementary swim, on the way to the beach, I saw a small filefish in the shallow coral rubble.  Looking more critically, I realized that I had a Shy Filefish.  He was about 4 inches in length and gave me one clear shot on top of a chunk of coral.   Dropping down, he swam among the coral rubble, offering me several  sihouettes with his tail spread and his file erect.   Unfortunately, I could not get in position to capture that classic filefish image.  I feel very fortunate that I got one well focused picture.  If you have a chance, take a look at the guide books and tell me who has the best picture. 

    Back in the day, say fifteen years ago, I would see this fish at least once in K Bay on an average two week Hawaiian vacation with my family.  So I've probably seen the Shy Filefish four or five times.  But not recently.  I can't clearly remember the last time I saw one of these furtive fish.  Maybe ten years!

Square tail  Filefish, Kahaluu, May 2013

This is one of those fish that I thought I might never see again.

   Isn't it great to know that if you spend some time at Kahalu'u you have a chance at this unusual beauty?  Is it enough to make you want to petition the people who ought to protect this heavily used gem for some increased protection.  How wonderful would it be if Kahalu'u was protected like the reefs of Bonaire? 

Go Fish,
jeff

A few days later, having had the opportunity to consider the above identification, I would like to submit one more picture,  some additional field notes and a correction.  Completing our swim yesterday, the Redoubtable SKK and I spotted a similar immature.

Square tail Filefish immature, Kahalu'u

However, this one started out quite gray with the white spot on the caudal peduncle and changed coloration to the striped form.  The picture you see was taken a few days ago and already (if it was the same fish) the stripe pattern was not so pronounced.  John Hoover writes that the immature Square Tail Filefish,  C. sandwichensis, has a honeycomb pattern.  He offers no picture.  I now suspect that our "shy" filefish was a little seen immature of the relatively common Sandwich Island Filefish.  If you look carefully, you will see the white spot on the caudal peduncle in the honeycomb pictures above.

Mea culpa,
jeff