A fish is when you describe a school of the same thing, fishes when you describe many schools of different kinds.
- Somewhere amongst the diving books, Bunaken
Thought I'll collate the fish and the fishes in one writing, and save the other individuals (non-fish) for another. We were really lucky to get to photograph the beauty of Bunaken as well as privy into some of these amazing underwater shots. Goes without saying, of course, that non of these marine animals were disturbed. It was again, surreal to be amongst them. My top favourite was the clown triggerfish - nothing to laugh at but can get pretty territorial during mating season. Lucky for us, it was off-peak as we cruised along, so just a lot of pretty sighting of them.
The tour groups checking us out...
Fusilliers - plenty and stunning... felt like I was swimming in a tank of blistering silver rays (a short indulgence of aquatic agent provocateur-ing!)
Orbiculate batfish - quite hard to spot but good to do so
Unicorn fish
Singular banner fish
Red-toothed triggerfish
Tuna
Needle fish (a few bogey misses for me, mistaking it for a barra from far)
Another triggerfish (forgot the type, you'll forgive me)
Napoleon Maori wrasse - big ass dude!
Pair of soldier fish checking us out - cute fellas with big eyes
Oriental sweetlips - something to pucker about
The mid-range Houdinis playing hide-and-seek...
Clownfish
Yes, more Nemo but you understand, don't you?
Blue sailfin
Coral grouper
Sweetheart of the sea - a spotted boxfish
You got to prowl close enough to the reef for these beauties...
Trumpetfish
Stone fish - a lot bigger, looks like a stone (duh), big killer
Scorpion fish - equally off limits, but smaller and it "crawls"!
Pair of razor fish... all right love, to the left, and kick to the right!
Lion fish - the underwater see-don't-touch policy
Goby - funny but colourful things
