Pescador island, a 10 minute boat ride away from our dive shop is on fire right now when it comes to fish behavior. If you have the chance to dive there, look out for the following things:
– Cornetfish hunting: Cornetfish are very elongated, lance-like fish which are ambush predators of smaller fishes. These days the sky is sometimes a bit overcast, and the lower light levels make it, seemingly, easier to hunt for the cornetfish. I have seen multiple instances of them darting at smaller prey fish.
– Trumpetfish hunting: There are also a lot of trumpetfish at Pescador who are hungry. Their hunting strategy: they shadow larger groupers, and just dart out from their cover in the last second to catch an unsuspecting prey fish. This happens in 20 -25 meters, and I have seen it several times along the reef wall during the last week.
– Barred Lip Wrasses mating. These are colorful, very active, fast moving wrasses. They mate a few meters off the reef wall right now, 15-20 m deep.
– Surgeonfish in mid water having territorial disputes. Naso minor, mid-water surgeonfish, are having fights over who own a piece of the ocean. They vigorously swim at each other and turn around each other in small circles. When that happens, the normally gray fish take on a grey/black checkered coloration for a few seconds. Fascinating! This happens quite fast, so I am still working on getting a good shot of the behavior!
