Do you know where you can see some of the most beautiful fish in Hawaii?
Wondering what some of those strange looking fish you see underwater in Hawaii are?
You can find schools of Barracuda many times at Honokohau Harbor. Raccoon Butterflyfish make excellent video subjects as they swarm the nests of Sergeant Majors at Eel Cove. Here's a great video.
Bicolor and Longfin Anthias are beautiful fish that tend to lurk a little deeper. At Place of Refuge or Honokohau Harbor, drop to the sand at 90' and look for these fish (and other juvenile species) hiding in isolated coral heads. Bicolor anthias also tend to hang out at the Naked Lady sailboat wreck.
Kona is full of eels. "Eel Cove" is a great spot to find a wide variety of morays, including the nifty-looking dragon moray, but you're likely to come across eels at pretty much any dive site. Look for a bunch of larger fish all staring at the same place in the coral, and occasionally jumping in for a snack - odds are, they're following a hunting moray as he scares fish out of their dens. Morays also make great subjects on night dives as they hunt.
Frogfish are hard to find if you don't know where to look. If you're beach diving at Honokohau, ask your dive operator if they've seen one there recently; they may be able to direct you straight to him.
Rockmover wrasses make great video subjects if you catch them digging for snacks and moving enormous rocks and chunks of coral out of their way. The juveniles (also called "Dragon Wrasse") are nice macro subjects. Divers also see pipefish, spanish dancer nudibranchs and boxfish.
What's your favorite Hawaiian fish? Share in the comments below or post a pic to Pinterest.
