Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Odd Couple


This isn't the first time I've seen these two together. This Cornetfish (related to the Trumpetfish and Seahorse) followed the turtle closely. It moved away when I dove down for a closer photo, then returned to the turtle's side when I surfaced. I wonder if they were out on a date?

Posted by Maui Don - Dolphin Dude at 1:05 PM

3 comments:

  1. Nice picture of interesting reef behavior.

    This behavior is called shadow-feeding. Trumpet fish do this often. In the bahamas they'll do this with grouper, parrot fish, hogfish, etc.

    Another frequent example of shadow feeding you'll see: a small jack swimming on the shoulder of a sting ray. The jack is usually very black in color when it's shadowing the ray.
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  2. woops, as you said its a coronet fish, not a trumpet fish. I believe the behavior pattern is the same tho...although I haven't seen this...the coronet fish are ususally down on the bottom when I see them. I think they are quite prolific in the malau'aka area.
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  3. what an adorable Odd Couple!
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