Virtual Travel-Meet a Squirrel Fish

This Squirrel Fish was seen at Sarah's Set, Bloody Bay Marine Park, Little Cayman, BWI.

The longspine squirrelfish (Holocentrus rufus) is a silvery red, sea fish with orange-gold body stripes. One of about 150 species of squirrelfish, their most distinguishing characteristics are their large eyes and the long third spine of the anal fin. 

 It lives in coral reefs in tropical and warm temperate seas and eats zoobenthos. It is territorial and uses sounds called "grunts" and "staccatos" to defend its crevice, warn of danger and, in groups, intimidate predators such as the moray eel. The longspine squirrelfish is edible and harvested on a small scale.

When diving you can sometimes see groupers and moray eels hunting squirrel fish together. The moray will chase the squirrel fish out of its hiding spot and the grouper will snap it up.

On Little Cayman, some of the groupers have trained humans to help them hunt. The grouper will hover near a coral head and wait for a diver to poke at the coral to scare the Squirrel Fish out. Clever aren't they.

#littlecayman #bloodybay
#littlecaymandivers #divecayman #lcdivers #clearlycayman #caymanislands #scubadiving #caymandiving 

#scuba #valetdiving #reefdivers #underwaterphotography #caribbean
#littlecaymanbeachresort

Take a virtual tour through some of my photos: https://photosbynanci.smugmug.com/Travel-Photography

We'll get through this together. We're all connected.
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Nancy Nutile-McMenemy is an Upper Valley freelance photographer and writer who loves to attend concerts and local events in and around Weathersfield and the Upper Valley.

If you have anything you think I should post during our Stay At Home Time drop me an email: photosbynanci@comcast.com