by Kat Ramage | Jun 17, 2017 | Environment, Kat Ramage Photos
Maybe one of these false clownfish is the dominate female in this anemone
Did you know that many of the lovely fish we regularly see on the coral reef have the ability to change their sex? The biological term is ‘sequential hermaphroditism,’ and wrasses, moray eels, gobies and clownfish are known to do this.
According to Wikipedia
“A school of clownfish is always built into a hierarchy with a female fish at the top. When she dies, the most dominant male changes sex and takes her place. In the wrasses (the family Labridae), sex change is from female to male, with the largest female of the harem changing into a male and taking over the harem upon the disappearance of the previous dominant male.”
The Spanish hogfish is one of the larger Caribbean wrasses
The blue-ribbon eel is one of the most beautiful
The fire goby is one of my favorites
by Kat Ramage | Jun 11, 2017 | Kat Ramage Photos
Some fish change dramatically as they mature from the juvenile to intermediate to adult stage. Let the expert pirates at Sea Rovers help you check them off your bucket list.
Batfish / Spadefish (Platax pinnatus)
This is technically an intermediate phase since you can see stripes starting to form
Here’s the adult phase
Koran Angelfish (Pomacanthus semicirculatus)
Here is the stunning juvenile.
I don’t yet have a photo of the adult, but here’s one thanks to Wikipedia
by Kat Ramage | Jun 4, 2017 | Kat Ramage Photos, Mucky Pirates Bay
The photo wench found lots of cooperative subjects on another long shore dive at Mucky Pirates Bay. Thanks to the pirates at Sea Rovers for providing shore support.
Here’s lookin at you kid
This is a juvenile angelfish who will look completely different when it grows up
This little bannerfish was busy trying to nibble at the jellyfish
These little puffers are so cute
One of the smaller false clownfish in the anemone under the pier
by Kat Ramage | Jun 3, 2017 | Kat Ramage Photos, Mucky Pirates Bay
Meet the sand shrimpgoby
One of the joys of diving for me is learning about and trying to photograph behavior. Today’s photos are not really portfolio-worthy, but they show the interesting relationship between the sand shrimpgoby and the shrimp they share a home with.
These two creatures are symbiotic (meaning their interaction benefits both of them). The gobies stand guard while the shrimp plays “housekeeper” to their burrow, continually digging and cleaning out the sand. The Gobies will signal when predators are near. When I got too close, they both dashed back into the hole. The fish came back out first, followed by the shrimp a few moments later, then the housecleaning continued.
Here’s you can see the shrimp doing some housecleaning while the goby is on lookout
Another shot of the pair–all of the floating sand was brought out by the shrimp
Here’s a closeup of the goby’s face–looks like he has a mouth full of sand so I guess he shares in the cleaning chores
by Kat Ramage | May 28, 2017 | Kat Ramage Photos, Mucky Pirates Bay
The photo wench takes her new camera for her first shore dive at Mucky Pirates Bay
After being sick for most of May, I was excited to take my new camera for my first dive to Mucky Pirates Bay with Abdul from Sea Rovers. We enjoyed a very leisurely 120 minute dive checking out the residents below the pier and out to the moorings. Here is some of what we saw.
Friendly pipefish
You don’t always get to see under the skirt of a nudibranch
This lionfish was too big for my lens, so I got a closeup of his face
I thought Abdul pointed me to a clump of sand until I looked at it with the 10x diopter–a TINY scorpionfish
Who doesn’t love Nemo? There’s a nice anemone with false clownfish at 6-7 meters so it’s a great place for your safety stop
