Thursday, April 19, 2012

Spotted Puffer

Arothron meleagris, Spotted puffer, in about 5 feet of water off of Waikiki. Not the best angle but he promptly dove under a rock to avoid my pestering and there was too much silt in the water to use the flash (i.e. headlights in a snowstorm). Really cool fish and otherwise slow enough that you can get a close shot. This was the first time I've seen one of these in the water, so it was a small treat. They have sharp beaks that they use to crush the branching coral that they feed on. The relative scarcity of branching coral may be one of the reasons why they are fairly uncommon...

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