Butterflyfish - Angelfish - Surgeonfish

Groep 1: Schijven en ovalen / Kleurrijk

Butterflyfish - Angelfish - Surgeonfish & Overig

Groep 1 - Schijven en ovalen / Kleurrijk: De eerste categorie schijf- en ovaalvormige vissen is erg belangrijk. Ze zijn kleurrijk, groot en zeer opvallend en de drie belangrijkste families waaruit de groep bestaat, zijn te vinden op bijna elke duik in Costa Rica.

Longnose Butterflyfish (Forcipiger flavissimus)

The yellow longnose butterflyfish is widespread throughout the tropical waters. It is a small fish which grows up to 22 cm in length. Being territorial, yellow longnose butterflyfish patrol their patches of coral with a monogamous partner.

Barberfish (Johnrandallia nigrirostris)

Barberfish are often seen in small groups swimming slowly a few feet above the bottom. The key feature of the barberfish is the black ring around its eye. The barber has a black eye from giving someone a bad haircut. (Size 3-4”, max. 6”)

Threebanded Butterflyfish (Chaetodon humeralis)

The three band butterfly is often seen in pairs. The obvious three body bands are the key to identifying this butterfly. It also has three dark bands on its tail. (Size 3-4”, max. 6”)

Clarion Angelfish (Holacanthus clarionensis)

The clarion angel is known only from the Southwestern Gulf of California. Its bright golden coloration makes for an easy identification. Clarion means clear or distinct and this Angel is definitely distinct. (Max. size 8”)

Cortez Angelfish (Pomacanthus zonipectus)

The Cortez angel is a bit larger and more in the open than the clarion. This is one angel that you will just have to memorize. (Max. size 18”)

King Angelfish (Holacanthus passer)

King angels are very gregarious and often found schooling in large numbers well up into the water column. King angels are much more of a planktonic feeder, preferring the small drifting particles up in the water to the standard angel diet of sponges and invertebrates on the bottom. The most obvious marking on the king angel is bright white bar across the side of the fish, but it also has a crown of blue spots on the forehead. An easy way to remember the name is that the King always has his sword/staff by his side and is wearing a crown. (Size 6-12”, max. 15”)

Yellowfin Surgeonfish (navajon aleta amarilla, Acanthurus xanthopterus)

The yellowfin surgeon is most common in open water above the reef and near drop- offs. Purple to blue body color and a yellow mask through the eye are the most obvious ID keys, though this surgeon also has a yellowish pectoral fin. It is also referred to as the purple surgeonfish. (Size 8-12”, max. 20”)

Yellowtail Surgeonfish (cirujano cochinito, Prionurus punctatus)

The yellowtail surgeonfish also has the purplish body coloration, but is obviously different with the bright yellow tail. It also has numerous dark spots all over the body. Often seen near the bottom in large groups this surgeon has three scalpels at the base of the tail. (A similar appearing yellowtailed surgeon, also known as the Chanco Surgeonfish, has very few body spots and is found exclusively in the Galapagos and lower islands.) (Size 6-12”, max 18”)

Moorish Idol (idolo moro, Zanchus cornutus)

This regal fish is called a moorish
idol. It is the only member of its own family and is related to the surgeonfish. Commonly found all the way out through Hawaii and the Indo Pacific, the moorish idol is the poster child for many tropical reefs. Remember its name by thinking that it is painted like an Idol. (Size 4-6”, max. 9”)

Goldrim Surgeonfish (Acanthurus nigricans)

Acanthurus nigricans has a body which is shaped like an elongated oval, with a steep dorsal profile to the head and an eye positioned high on the head. It has a small protrusible mouth with between 8 and 28 small teeth on the jaws which have flattened, notched tips. The overall colour is bluish-black or black broken by a large patch of white below the eye. There is a yellow band at the base of both the dorsal and anal fins and this widens as it approaches the caudal fin. The caudal peduncle has a patch of yellow around the spine and its sheath. The caudal fin is white with a slender yellow submarginal band.

Razor Surgeon Fish (Prionurus laticlavius)

Prionurus laticlavius has an oval compressed body with a steep dorsal profile on the head with the eye positioned high on the head. The teeth are moderately large, set closely, flattened with strongly serrated edges. The overall colour is grey contrasting with the yellow caudal fin with a dark vertical bar through the eye and another at the back of the head. The juveniles are largely yellow in colour.

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1. Disks and Ovals / Colorful

The first category of disk and oval shaped fish are very important to learn. They are colorful, large and very obvious and the three main families that make up the group can be found on almost every dive.

2. Silvery Fish

Silvery fish have many different family members, though we will look at just a few representatives. As opposed to the colorful butterfly, angel and surgeonfish, the silvery fish tend to blend in better in open water and are usually not found near the colorful bottom.

3. Sloping Head / Tapered Body

This third group of “fish-like” fish, are very important to learn. The are common on most dives and are also highly sought after as food fish. It is especially important to monitor these fish to provide data for fisheries management. Snappers can be very difficult to tell apart from the similarly shaped grunts. One helpful hint is to look at their tails. Snappers tend to have straight, flat tails. They are also known for their habit of snapping their mouth open and shut when caught on hook and line. They have very sharp canine teeth that can provide a nasty bite to the unsuspecting angler. Look closely on your next dive and you may see the small teeth protruding from the side of the mouth. Grunts on the other hand, have slightly notched tails. They get their name from the grunting sounds they emit when threatened. These sounds are created by rubbing together bony teeth plates located in the back of the throat. Since the teeth are in the throat, a diver will never see protruding teeth on a grunt, only big blubbery fish lips.

4. Small Ovals / Damselfish

While divers tend to first notice the larger, more obvious fish on a dive, after a short while the challenge to find new species leads them to change their search image to look for smaller, previously unnoticed fish. Generally, the first new species a diver will encounter will belong to the small oval shaped group. This group is broken into the damselfish and their close cousins the chromis. Damsels are like the surgeonfish in that they eat algae. They do not roam around grazing, but rather tend to small algae gardens like a farmer. These areas are guarded fiercely as the algae farm is the damsels food source. For that reason you can think of the damselfish as not just territorial, but Dam- selfish with its territory. Many damselfish have distinctly different colors as juveniles, often being much brighter and more colorful when they are young and becoming drab with age. (much like us humans!) For this reason, the juveniles have been heavily collected for the aquarium trade and are under heavy fishing pressure. As part of the REEF Fish Survey Project, divers are asked to monitor the juveniles and adults separately in two of the damselfish species – the Cortez damselfish and the giant damselfish.

5. Heavy Body / Large Lips

Heavy bodied, large lipped fish belong to the seabass family. We tend to refer to the larger seabasses as groupers and the smaller seabasses as bass or basslets. These fish are extremely important food fish and are under increasing threats from heavy fishing pressures. Monitoring these fish can help provide valuable data to aid in their protection. Most seabasses are hermaphrodites, meaning the same fish will be both a male and a female during its lifetime. The groupers are all born female and later change sex to become male. Most large groupers also congregate each year to spawn at a specific location, making them easy targets for emerging positioning and fishing technology.

6. Swim with Pectorals / Obvious Scales

The fish in this group all use their pectoral fins to swim with rather than the traditional tail swimming of most other fish. The scales are also quite large and obvious. These fish can also be hermaphrodites, like the groupers, with some fish changing sex and others staying the same. Intermediate and adult fish often have very different appearances compared to the always-male terminal phase. This means learning two colors to be able to ID the same species of fish. Most of the pictures shown in this curriculum are terminal phase males, unless noted.

7. Redish / Big Eyes

This group of reddish fish is normally not seen during day dives due to their nocturnal nature. The reddish color helps them blend in at night and the large eyes help them to see better.

8. Small, Elongated Bottom Dwellers

The small bottom dwelling fish often make up the most interesting fish to watch during your dive. Their approachable nature and interesting behaviors make them great fishwatching finds. Blennies tend to be slightly larger than gobies, but are most easily recognized by their curved body posture and expressive faces. Gobies, though similar in their habitat requirements, tend to sit flat and straight on the bottom. The jawfishes actually live in a burrow in the sand that they excavate and maintain.

9. Odd-Shaped Bottom-Dwellers

This category of fish is made up of families and species that didn’t quite fit anywhere else due to their unique body shapes.

10. Odd-Shaped Swimmers

This group of fish contain families that are unusual in their shape, but are swimmers rather than bottom dwellers.

11. Eels

Though looking like snakes, eels are fish. There are several different types of eels, and we will look at two – garden eels that live in burrows in the sand and moray eels. Moray eels have a bad reputation mainly due to the constant opening and closing of their sharp toothed mouths. However, this is not a threat to divers, as this action pumps water through their gills. Most eels are actually very shy.

12. Sharks & Rays

Even though the sharks and rays are cartilaginous (their skeletons are made of cartilage instead of bones), they are still referred to as fish and count during our surveys.

5 Fun Facts - Butterfly Fish

FUN FACTS Butteflyfish - Angelfish - Surgergeonfish

Butterflyfish behoren tot de meest kleurrijke wezens die je op de koraalriffen ter wereld kunt tegenkomen. Deze betoverende vissen behoren tot de familie Chaetodontidae en staan bekend om hun opvallende uiterlijk en fascinerende gedrag. Hier is alles wat je moet weten over deze onderwaterwonderen, samen met enkele leuke weetjes:

Naam Oorsprong: De naam "vlindervis" is afgeleid van hun sierlijke en fladderende bewegingen onder water, die lijken op de delicate en sierlijke vlucht van vlinders.

Oogverblindend uiterlijk: Vlindervissen staan bekend om hun levendige en ingewikkelde patronen. Hun lichamen zijn vaak versierd met opvallende strepen, vlekken en opvallende kleuren zoals elektrisch blauw, geel en oranje. Deze opvallende verschijning zorgt er niet alleen voor dat ze opgaan in het koraal, maar dient ook als waarschuwing voor potentiële roofdieren dat ze giftig of onsmakelijk zijn.

Sociale vlinders: Vlindervissen staan erom bekend dat ze monogame paren vormen die minstens 3 jaar en soms hun hele leven bij elkaar blijven. Ze worden vaak gezien terwijl ze nauw met hun partner zwemmen, wat hun band versterkt en helpt bij het verdedigen van hun territorium.

Gespecialiseerd dieet: Vlindervissen hebben een uniek dieet dat voornamelijk bestaat uit koraalpoliepen, kleine ongewervelde dieren en algen. Hun lange, slanke monden zijn perfect aangepast om in krappe ruimtes binnen het koraal te reiken om hun prooi eruit te halen.

Keystone-soorten: Vlindervissen spelen een cruciale rol bij het behoud van de gezondheid van koraalriffen. Door zich te voeden met schadelijke organismen die koralen kunnen overgroeien en beschadigen, helpen ze het ecosysteem in balans te houden.

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LEES VERDER

Butterflyfish - Angelfish - Surgeonfish

Groep 1: Schijven en ovalen / Kleurrijk

Butterflyfish - Angelfish - Surgeonfish & Overig

Kies een andere viscategorie

5 Fun Facts - Butterfly Fish

Join our Costa Rica
Marine Conservation Program

Duik op de beste duikplekken in Costa Rica met tropische vissen, schildpadden, adelaarsroggen en rifhaaien terwijl je bijdraagt aan vitale inspanningen voor natuurbehoud.

info@richcoastdiving.com

+ 506 8610 0914

Playas del Coco, Hoofdstraat 151
Guanacaste, Costa Rica

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Butterflyfish - Angelfish - Surgeonfish

Groep 1: Schijven en ovalen / Kleurrijk

Butterflyfish - Angelfish - Surgeonfish & Overig

Kies een andere viscategorie

5 Fun Facts - Butterfly Fish

Join our Costa Rica ​Marine Conservation Program

Duik op de beste duikplekken in Costa Rica met tropische vissen, schildpadden, adelaarsroggen en rifhaaien terwijl je bijdraagt aan vitale inspanningen voor natuurbehoud.

info@richcoastdiving.com

+ 506 8610 0914

Join our Costa Rica
Marine Conservation Program