Fish of the Year: The Immature Shortnose Wrasse

    Ever so rarely a fish comes along that is so unexpected and delightful that it conjures the presence of a benevolent deity.  When Bob and I arranged to meet for a snorkel yesterday afternoon, I said something

Shortnose Wrasse,Macropharyngodon geoffroy , Kaahalu'u October 2015

like, "I hope we see something good."   He replied, "We are going to see something spectacular."

    We met at Kahalu'u.  Sandra dropped me off and then headed up to the KTA store for necessary comestibles.  One does not live by fishwatching alone.

There was only a modest crush of tourists at the entry and the water was only a little cloudy.  The temperature was pleasant, in the mid 80s.  As we swam towards the Menehune Breakwater I despaired once again looking at all the bleached and dying coral.  I shudder to think what Kahalu'u is going to look like in a year.  It seems inevitable that there will be a lot less coral, fewer places for fish to rest and take cover.  What has taken centuries to build has been scourged by a

Even this baby can change his color pattern.

 single month of excessive water temperature.  We may be looking at a substantial shift in the reef fish populations, not just in this bay but all up and down the coast, perhaps the entire State of Hawaii.

    It was with these thoughts that I made my turn at the breakwater, swimming over the shallows out to Surfer's Rock.  We tooled around for a few minutes and then I noticed Bob attempting a photograph.  Venturing over, it took only a moment for me to pick out the object of his interest.  It was an immature wrasse, vaguely similar to the immature rockmover that is also known as the dragon wrasse.  I'm sure you remember that fish and the incumbent admonition...don't eat the green ones, they're not ripe yet.

    This fish was the size of a small dragon wrasse, about an inch and a half long.  He was a jumble of colorful spots and sported a variety of spines from both dorsal ad ventral fins.  As you can tell from the pictures, most of the time he swam with both his dorsal and ventral fins fully extended, thus offering a strange silhouette.

    Your humble correspondent, Olympus T4 in hand, got right on it.  The two of us chased this little sprite over the reef for about ten minutes.  He moved continuously.  Not just changing his location, but throwing in bobs and weaves, jinking up and down. this behavior is unlike that of the dragon wrasse.  The dragon wrasse moves sinuously, dancing to a slow tune that only he can hear.   When chased by an eager photographer, he glides with a final swoop into cover under a stone or in the coral. 

Which end is which?

 
    This fish did   not seek cover, but relied on his quick jerky movements for protection.  He was dancing like Elaine Benes on meth.

    Do you remember the Karate Kid and his sensai, Kesuke Miyagi?   This fish posed a serious challenge for the photographer, channel Mister Miyagi and hope for beginner luck.  Would catching the perfect picture of this little fish be more difficult that plucking a fly out of the air with chopsticks?  Wax on, wax off!

    After about ten minutes of chasing around (ten minutes is actually a pretty long time to chase one small fish in a small area) we surfaced.  I asked Bob if he knew what it was and he replied that he thought it was an immature Shortnose Wrasse.  Had he seen one before?  Probably not.

     I was struck immediately by the coincidence; just that morning I had finished writing about the shortnose wrasse, Macropharyngodon geoffroy, that Sandra had found for us at Mahukona.  In the process of

Nose to nose with a baby saddle wrasse

writing about that handsome little fish,  I had looked at John Hoover's excellent pictures in the Ultimate Guide.to Hawaiian Reef Fishes.  The pictures aren't attributed to anyone else, so I assume that John Hoover took the pictures himself.  Suffice it to say, that in addition to being an excellent writer and biologist, he is a fantastic fish finder and photographer. Hoover includes pictures of two immatures, the youngest is gray with a variety of white spots and strannge fins..The older immature pictured in the book is almost like a small adult.  The fish we were chasing was not an absolute match for either of the two pictures in John's book, but similar enough to make me quite confident that this was indeed an immature shortnose. 

     We chased the fish for another five minutes,  You will note that this little guy was really dedicated to his spot on the reef...most fish would, if they didn't seek cover, just swim away.  Eventually we lost him.  In our chase I had taken just shy of 30 pictures. 

For this little fish, need beginner luck.

What you see here are the best five out of that batch.  We have checked it out with the experts and what you see is definitely an immature  shortnose wrasse  transitional between the very young fish and the older immature pictured in Hoover's book. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

jeff