No octopus?!

If you've been reading my posts, you'll know not seeing an octopus was a bit of a downer. OK, well a BIG downer! But I did enjoy seeing all the usual suspects, as well as a couple of relative "newbies" in the water. What I didn't enjoy was BOTH cameras going down!
One stuck in the ON position...but it wouldn't let me take pix. Thankfully, this oldest and favorite camera did snap to once I got it home and dried off. Hope it keeps going for many more years to come. The backup camera came up with Card Error.  Huh. This camera tends to do that more than #1 ever did. Perhaps it's angry that I like another camera better. Ah well.  Today, I'm going with 3 cameras, because, as I knew would happen, once there were no cameras working, I saw cool stuff: like a white Leaf Fish. And a Partridge Tun shell, with its shell broken. The animal was still in it, though, because when I prodded it, it didn't move an inch.  And of course, my favorite shell, the Hairy Triton, was found too. A perfectly intact shell.  But sadly, there was a crab living in it, so before I was too tempted to take it anyway, I put it back down and swam away.  Hard to do! But here's what I did see and record:

Bright eye Chromis.  Such cute little fish.  There have been quite a few really tiny ones lately, too. So they are increasing.

Apparently this peacock grouper is not a popular fish.  It's like the bully of the sea, tormenting and eating many others on the reef.

A pair of Rockmover Wrasse.  These guys let me down! They are usually found near an octopus.  But if they were yesterday, I didn't see the octopus. But I thought this pair was cute, bending off at the same time.  

Two urchins: the red one is the Pencil Urchin.  The other one is found all over the reef with its prickly spines. I stay clear. 

This is the mystery trigger fish:

A neat trigger, but not sure what type it is.  Very quick around the reef though. It acts differently than the regular humuhumunukunukuapua'a: more easily spooked and shy.

Nice Hawkfish, resting on the coral:

It does the same thing as the Leaf Fish, but doesn't bother to hide.

You can just see this Leaf Fish's red eye on the left.  

Also saw some shells:

 Bubble shell. Very light and breakable.  It looked occupied, so I left it on the sandy bottom.

 Cone shell and operculum behind it. I did pick up the operculum...carefully.

This shell came home with me.  No one was living in there and I was happy to add a very nice specimen to my small collection.

This is the mystery chromis.

 I didn't try to pick up this shell...too well protected by that crab you can see above and to the left! But really, I do think this shell had a crab in it.

This cone shell looked alive.  So I left it.  I did take the piece of Turban shell just below it. When they are broken like this, it's easier to see if they are occupied.

Trunk Fish:

Otherwise known as Box Fish. So cute.

This is another Chromis that I do need to look up.  I know I've seen it in one of my books, but I'll let you know.

A nice swim.  But today, I would love to see an octopus. I hope the seals aren't eating them all.