This time on our Snorkelcation, we got serious about fishtology. However, the book was only in French. So we learnt poissontologie, and it took us a bit longer to identify the Orange-lined Triggerfish, above.
The Scribbled Unicornfish, below, is a badass. You can tell because his tail is partially bitten off, and since he's blue, which means he's not frightened of us larger, uglier swimmers.
Below, a Bridaled Parrotfish youth, which in French is named after dead leaves.
This one is a Singapore Parrotfish, and is the same colour as the Singaporean passport, a fact missed by the livre de poissons.
Fishdentification can be tough. The fish below is the adult version of the fish above, so you get no extra points. I was disappointed with fish who change looks and gender, making them very hard to chercher dans le livre.
Barry called this a Batfish, which is wrong but does exist, (as do catfish, dogfish, goatfish, lionfish and frogfish, showing a lack of creativity). It's actually a Phantom Bannerfish. I call it the angry eyebrow fish.
This well-named Picasso Triggerfish refuses to be photographed elegantly.
The titan triggerfish avoids plaque buildup by scraping his teeth on rocks all day.
The Sixbar Wrasse (Labre en Français) is vain, has crazy tattoos, and kept requesting more pictures.
This trip, Barry tried to stop being afraid of sharks by realizing he was larger than them.
Below is the Short-nosed Unicornfish. I would not have gone with a nose-naming, myself.
This is the Forceps Butterflyfish, not to be confused with the Long Nose Butterflyfish. Here, a nose-naming makes more sense.
The Scrawled Filefish is super creepy, and you would freak out if you saw one in the grocery store.
The Squaretail Coralgrouper should be called the Crazy Bluespots Grouper.
The Common Bluestripe Snapper were good to bully and scatter their school a little to get out any snorkel frustration.
The Lunar-tailed Bigeye, which can be red, silver or striped, pictured-bombed the Clown Triggerfish.
Poissontologie helped me to not confuse these Indopacific Sergeantfish with Convict Surgeonfish, so this is something that will help me in life.
Redtail Butterflyfish are one of a zillion type des Poissons Papillons that we saw.
True facts about the starfish: Did you know that each leg is made of a long gonad, that they can change gender, or that they can just reproduce by growing a new leg, as is being done here? So if you don't like the pickings, you just clone!
Finally, how about a Stingray for good measure.
