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Cephalopholis miniata & Bodianus dictynna
A late start to scuba diving for me this year, first dive of the year was on 31 Jan and I didn't even bring along my camera. On the second day, 01 Feb, I brought along my camera to take pictures of friends on the dives. Didn't get to take too many pictures as I had to look after a Group of Divers but the interaction between this 2 fishes were too comical to miss. This Spotting is or 2 Organism - 2 species of Fish. The Fish on the left is a Coral Grouper, also known as Coral Hind, Miniatus Grouper, Blue-spotted Rock Grouper. It is a medium sized fish, around 30 cm, bright red color with blue spots. Mostly solitary hanging around crevices of Corals. The Fish on the right is a Hogfish, they are from the Family of Wrasses. Some Wrasses perform 'cleaning' duties to other Fishes but I am not sure if this is the case in the pictures above. The Hogfish approached the Coral Grouper and hovers in front of the Grouper, face-to-face an then turn itself a full circle, allowing me to capture this 2 pictures, showing in Pic#1 its upside down position.
Tropical Reefs
5 Comments
Thanks, @venus :)
great shots albert!
Thanks, @EnvUnlimited :)
Thanks, @Gilma.
I think the Hogfish is trying to 'clean' the Grouper but the Grouper doesn't want to be cleaned. Usually, when a Cleaner Wrasse approach another Fish to clean, the other Fish will opens up its mouth for the Wrasse to pick food scraps in the mouth or parasites on the gills.
Gorgeous pictures, AlbertKang!! Thank you for the information. I wonder what they were up to?