Still glad i went

OK, the water quality was poor today, due I think to waves and the sun not totally coming up yet. However, I still spotted two octopuses, so my time was not wasted.

 I won't blame you if you don't see he'e #2...the water quality wasn't great!

I'm still counting it, though....

Another fish I gotta look up. The days are packed!

Brighteye Chromis and the mottled colored one, below. 

 Cornet

Picasso Trigger

 And the regular Humu

See the water quality?!

 Overloaded Urchin

 I am sorry to say that the Bay is very sad: much reef damage. 



But the sunrise is still pretty!!

God is good!
PS: I had started a pretend non-alcoholic beer last night and didn't finish it. I had it in my ice cube Bubba cup. So this morning, without thinking, I drank, because I wanted cold after my coffee. What a shocker! I can't remember the last time I had beer, albeit pretend beer, for breakfast!

The lady and the eel

This morning, I talked with a young lady who walked up to fish in the deeper side pond. I mentioned where I would be swimming and asked her, smiling, not to hook me! She laughed and said she would try not to. I told her that I'm nervous about hooks because I saw an eel killed by a fishing line not long ago. She said her sis-in-law was attacked by an eel (not sure what water she was in) and they had to pull her out of the water because the eel wasn't letting go! eek. I have never seen any eels in Hawaii that attached themselves to a person. Anyway, cautionary tale.

I did see a small Snowflake Moray in the same den where I used to see an octopus. Bad, bad moray! Yes, I know they are only trying to live and eat, but with so many other types of food, you'd think they would give an octopus a break. And really, I don't know if the eel ate the octopus or if it just flew away. In any case, I saw two octopuses today, and as far as I know, they were both new:

 The octopus flew from the coral head below, to the rock above. The tail of the Rock Mover Wrasse is above the octopus, which had adhered itself to the underside of the rock. The octopus is just below the white bar on the wrasse's tail.

The Rock Mover flew over the bottom, rubbing itself on the rocks. The octopus, to the bottom left, just sat there, trying to be invisible. 

He'e changed color to dark maroon when I swam down to get a closer shot.

 And it came fully out to move from the coral to the rock.

And he'e #2 was in this hole....it changed to the darker color when I swooped down. If I could only get them to know that I'm not the enemy.

And a very nice surprise in addition to octo-sightings, the long nose butterfly fish. Times 2! It's a lauwiliwilinukunuku'oi'oi fish. It means shaped like a wiliwili tree with a sharp snout:

They do have a very long snout. And pretty coloration. And they are usually seen in pairs:

 Like the Raccoon Butterfly fish:

The fish above were coming to see if I would feed them, I think. Note how their eyes are concealed by the black band on their faces.

 Ambon puffer is still pretty, even in sandy water.

Very nice clouds. Lots of variety.

 And a moon.

Cornet fish.

 Drupe shell with goop on it. Note the two "teeth" on the inside of the lip. Not sure what purpose they serve.

 The first fish I saw, a female Christmas Wrasse.

Hebrew Cone. In less than pristine condition.

 Another tiny Humu. They are so cute when they watch you and sometimes dart into a hole for protection.

Overloaded Urchin

 A mess of Kihikihi (Moorish idol) fish. This was taken in the Keiki Pond, where people walk around and mess up the bottom and therefore, the visibility.

 Moon.

 I titled one of these "Enough already!"

But had to include the ones with the palm trees for Alex.

 Hiding behind the clouds.

Paddle surfer...the surf wasn't great, so not many surfers to watch out for.

 Pencil Urchins

And Pinktail Durgon. Aren't those cool fins on top and bottom? Clear with black edging.

 Snakeshead Cowry shell, hiding in a dent in a rocky area.

Two snoozers on the island. I'm told the little one was there again. They are guessing it comes from Ni'ihau.

You can see the thread of the Threadfin Butterfly.

 And this is where the Snowflake Moray took over the octo-den. 

Very happy to see two octopuses, especially after seeing none last time. And when I got out of the water, found out our lease for the place on Oahu was approved! Yay. 

Over the moon

When I got to the pond today, I was very happy to see very limited surf! Is it winter already?!

Normally, there are waves crashing into the Keiki Pond, but not today!! Woohoo!

I debated whether I should start with the Keiki Pond, to search for the frog fish (which I didn't find.) But I'm glad I opted to go into the harder-to-do deep side, because I found 3 octopuses over there. Woohoo! (Let me know if you get tired of that, but can you tell I am excited?)

 At first pass, octopus #1 was just a brown blur in its den. But on the 2nd pass, it was out and showing off. I could tell it was an adult not just because of its size, but also the size of the siphon.

It got a little rainbow light on it.

Octopus #2 of 5:

 It was a small one. So adorable.

This is what I first saw. AND I saw #1 and 2 within the first five minutes of swimming. Banner day. (#2 is the brown blob near the rock.)

I especially liked that it didn't seem to care too much that I was there. Never really turned to that angry brown color.

 If #3 hadn't moved, I would never have spotted it! A Rock Mover Wrasse was trying to boss it around. Here, it rests between coral heads.

Yes it was between 2 heads of coral. In the photo above, it is on the right about 1/3 of the way down. Isn't that great camouflage?

 #4

 It's another young one. Which also didn't change into that brown color.

 And also between a rock and a rock. 

I would say hiding well, but I spotted it. But my husband says I have mad skills.

#5 selected a great den, out near the sign in the Keiki Pond.

 And unless you know where to look, you wouldn't suspect it was there.

 I included the following photo because of the suckers showing on the left. They have around 240 suckers on each leg. I'm telling you, these animals are way cool.

 See what I mean? It's a small narrow den entry. That is part of the fun: finding the little darlings.

OK, now that the octo-excitement is over, here are the other wonderful examples of God's creativity that I saw:

 A group of 8 Kihikihi (Moorish Idol) fish. They are such pretty fish and swim in a very elegant manner, always appearing calm.

 This empty shell was the remains of someone's meal. Not mine.

 The female Trunk Fish.

 I think this spotted fish below the coral head is the juvenile of the Barred Filefish. Note the little hawk fish on top of the coral head.

 A nice Hebrew Cone shell which I left alone.

 And now we come to the reason I almost called this post Box City!

 Isn't it amazing that the dots even occur on its eyes?

 You might not know my fave color, but this fish has it in spades!

 More Moorish Idols.

And needlefish

 Pencil Urchin out of hiding.

 And more or less in hiding with rainbow.

 Pinktail Durgon. Since the water was less wavy, it was also less bubbly, so I got some better pix of this beautiful and shy fish.

 I just think it's so crazy that it has so many colors going on! The pink on the tail, the yellow fins and the orange mouth.

I call it plaid Cornet fish.

 Nice shell, I think it's a basket, but could easily, as you may know, be wrong.

 Snowflake Moray eel out and about.

 Tiny Humu juveniles, maybe 2 inches long. They dart for cover when a large animal like me comes along. What'd I do?!

Bluefin Trevally swam through.

 I thought the juxtaposition of these 2 types of urchin was interesting.

 There was an octopus in this den, now occupied by an eel. I hope the octopus escaped. 

So that's the scoop from today's 2 hour swim. Very happy with the sightings, the water and God's provision. 

OOPS! Almost forgot the cool clouds:

I really enjoyed the contrasts in shading and the enormity of this cloud. Which was so big, I couldn't get it all in one shot!