Blennylips Bonaire Critter Clips

In Critter Clips we feature short (generally a minute or under) video clips of critters I've encountered. above and below the water, here in Bonaire.

I use the term critter in two senses. As in the title of this page, it refers to any non-human form of animal life. It is also used in the technical sense of any non-fish animal life found underwater.

For fish and critters found underwater, I follow the terminology of the bible of Caribbean sea life identification, the three volume set of Paul Humann.

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Above

Birds

Flamingo

Here's a flamingo treat for your next visit to Bonaire. Almost every evening an hour or so before sunset, a group of twenty to thirty flamingos take off to make the flight to Venezuela. Here, we waited just south of Red Slave and the flight went right over our heads.

Another good place to view Flamingoes close up is around Gotomeer. It's a pretty salina up near Bopec.

Pelican
- Here, we see a pelican at the Cai fishing beach trying to eat more than his bellycan.

Lizards and Iguanas
- Green Iguana
  - After a dive at Sand Dollar, we found these iguanas lazing on the concrete pad that used to house the famous Green Parrot Restaurant.
- Whiptail Lizard
  - Whiptail's can be very intimidating at tourist stops. They want food and they want it now!

Below

Critter

Crustaceans

Golden Coral Shrimp
- With patience, you can get these cleaner shrimp to clean you. This one climbed right up into our hands.

Spanish Lobster
- This guy was crawling around an underhang just past the reef dropoff at Cai Lac.

Spotted Cleaner Shrimp

I find you can often get these and other cleaner shrimp to "do your nails" with a slow approach of your hand. Try to imitate the behavior you see other fish do when they are soliciting cleaning.

Spotted Spiny Lobster
- The rock wall as you head out in the Cai Channel is a great place to see baby and juvenile lobsters.

Dolphin
- Not going to pretend to ID these guys...This is only the second time in my diving career that I've seen dolphins while diving. Magical!

Echinoderms
- Black and White Crinoid
  - The Crinoid, or Feather Duster is common at some Bonaire dives and rare at others. Usually seen at night, sometimes you can see them unfurl their net during the day.
- Long-spined Sea Biscuit
  - This is the only one of these urchins I've ever seen. Leave it to Bill Wilden to find one!

Mollusks

Caribbean Reef Squid
- These are a common sight in the shallows at many Bonaire dive sites. They are clearly intelligent and curious critters.
- The amazing Bill & Prawphan show us the friendly squid on Bari Reef.

Common Octopus

There is really nothing at all common about the octopus! I believe that squid and octopus are the most intelligent non-mammals under the sea. The play of texture, tone and color on their skin as they hunt seems wonderfully expressive of some animal pleasure and frustration.

Turtle

Green Turtle

Today, friends took us to a site, "Candylands", that we'd never been to before. It is up past Bopec, but before Nukove and Playa Frans and has some of the most beautiful coral formations I've seen on Bonaire. Added to the teeming fish we saw was this really big Green turtle.

Hawksbill Turtle

This smallish tagged turtle came trucking across the sandy channel separating the double reefs at Alice in Wonderland.
Saw this one at Something Special. Clearly on a mission to get somewhere.

For some reason, the not particularly attractive Yellow Submarine reef has more than its share of interesting stuff. This turtle allowed us to follow it around for more than twenty minutes.

This friendly young Hawksbill hung out for almost a year at our "house reef" off the Sabadeco Pier. We saw him (her?) almost every dive and he never seemed concerned with our presence.

Fish

Disks and Ovals, Colorful

Banded Butterflyfish
- Like most other Butterflyfish, the Banded seem to always be seen in pairs.

Blue Tang
- Tang Gangs are often seen in the shallows. They gang up like this to overwhelm the defenses of the very aggresive damsel fish in order to get at the precious algae the damsel farms.

Cherubfish
- Its size (small) and shyness differentiate this angelfish from all others. Its really difficult to video!

Foureye Butterflyfish
- One of the five species of Butterfly fish found around Bonaire. Can you find all five on one dive? We've done it once at Cai Channel.

French AngelFish

French Angelfish, like most other Angels and Butterflyfish, seem to almost always travel around in pairs. Are they mates? For life? I do not know.

These stately inhabitants of the reef are usually seen down in the reef. Occasionally you see them up in the water column. They do not seem to be feeding. Is this advertising for a mate?

One way to tell this "teenage" French Angel from the similar Gray Angel juvenile is the tailfin ringed with yellow.

Gray Angelfish

They juvenile angelfish are really beautiful and not very shy. They usually just go about their constant swimming in place. They might be advertising their cleaning services as many juvenile angels do clean parasites off other fish.

Queen Angelfish
- The most regal of angelfish. Unlike the French Angelfish, the Queen never seems to show any curiousity about divers.

Eels

Brown Garden Eel
- A common sight in deeper sandy areas. As you approach them, they sink into their hole and as you pass by, they come back out. Seem to have a pretty exact comfort zone!

Goldentail Moray
- This beautiful eel is a bit rare to see during the day, let alone at the more usual eeling time at night.

Green Moray
- A common sight during the day--usually poking their head out of a hole. This one, on the Cai Reef, was out swimming around.
- A Banded Coral Shrimp is gently cleaning this well concealed (though _huge_) eel.
- A lot of reef denizens react to seeing their relection in the big lens of my camera housing. Like this eel, they seem to think they've run into some competition.
- This was one really big eel, making his way across the second reef at Eighteenth Palm.

Sharptail Eel
- Like most eels, its unusual to see them out hunting during the day. This one was so intent on hunting that we were totally ignored.

Spotted Moray

Many people fear eels because of their fierce looks. I find them to be pretty unasuming when not hunting or feeding. Beware though that their eyesight is very poor--your fingers waving in front of them will look like vienna sausages.

Heavy Body, Large Lips
- Coney
  - Coneys are common and varied in coloration. But, you do not see many in the Yellow-phase.
- Fairy Basslet
  - The Fairy Basslet is one of the prettiest fish on the reef. Quite often they orient themselves to whatever surface (vertical, overhead, etc) there is.
  - A very colorful, if not somewhat evil looking fish.
- Greater Soapfish
  - This is the typical pose you find the soapfish in; Just laying about in the open or under some cover. Notice that this one is being cleaned by a small goby.
- Tiger Grouper
  - At the Sabadeco Pier, we found this grouper hiding under an overhang, getting cleaned by gobies.
  - You very often see a trumpetfish "shadowing" a grouper or other large fish--most often a parrotfish. Seems to defeat the purpose by hiding behind another predator!
  - You can almost always count on find some fish cleaning action when diving Bonaire. Look closely and you can see some kind of isopod(??) on this groupers forehead.

Odd-Shaped Bottom Dwellers

Longlure Frogfish

This (probably female) frogfish was not very camouflaged. Something Special is usually a good place to hunt for these elusive fish.
Thie beautiful "christmas" (i.e. green & red) frogfish is most likely a male.

Learned something new on a dive at Red Slave. In the barren shallows, in just three feet of water, found this little frogfish searching for a home. I'd never seen them in this kind of surroundings before.

I do not find Bari Reef particularly beautiful, but there is not a Bonaire reef packed with more unusual fish & critters.

Longsnout Seahorse
- For a while now, there have been two sea horses on the Yellow Submarine reef. Why is it such a treat to see these guys?
- I've rarely seen this orange colored sea horse. Unfortunately, they were way down in a hole and difficult to video.

Maculated Flounder
- Pretty rare, but males easily identified by the long pectoral rays.

Peacock Flounder

Look for these fish in the sandy shallows. As shown here, you can often get them interested by digging around in the sand. They'll come over waiting for you to flush some tidbit out.

There is something basically fascinating about a fish that starts off life looking perfectly fish like and then one eye migrates to the other side of its face. Despite their weird appearance, they are formidable predators.

Spotted Scorpionfish
- Spotted Scorpionfish are all over the place, but seldom seen because of their "you cannot see me" attitude and usually excellent camouflage.
- At the end of this clip, you just get a glimps of the wonderful coloration of the fins of this otherwise well camouflaged fish.

Odd-Shaped Swimmers

Bandtail Puffer
- This cute, curious pufferfish is a good one to search for in the sandy shallow rubble areas during your safety stop.

Black Durgon
- Looking like ballet dancers, the beautiful Durgon picks plankton out of the water column.

Coronetfish

These beautifully strange fish are not a very common sight. They can be a bit shy, but often will circle back around for another look at you.
Divers often confuse the Coronetfish with the Trumpetfish. The Trumpetfish cannot bend its body much, while the Coronetfish can move very sinuously.

You can tell from the number of clips of the Coronetfish I've posted that it is one of my favorites. Its fairly rare to see and has really beautiful markings. They are somewhat shy, but have great curiosity. If you ignore, rather than chase them, they will often circle around for a better look at you.

Honeycomb Cowfish

The Honeycomb Cowfish is a commonly seen denizen of the reefs around Bonaire. Not so common is to see their mating dance. They spiral around each other heading for the surface and, after the finale, return to the reef. Most amazing, is the gorgeous violet/purple shade they turn while performing the ballet.

These spectacular juveniles move about the reef like tiny spaceships.

Ocean Triggerfish
- Ocean and Queen Triggerfish are rarely seen on Bonaire's reefs. This one was on Klien Bonaire's south side.

Porcupinefish
- These large puffer's are usually pretty shy, This one came very close for a better look at me.

Queen Triggerfish

I've only seen this triggerfish two or three times in the last two years of diving Bonaire. We took advantage of a wind reversal to dive Baby Beach on the east side where this guy greeted us as we descended over the dropoff.

Scrawled Filefish
- This most elegant of fish has quite beautiful markings and will usually allow a close approach if done gently.
- Seems like there are no fish that do not sometimes partake in a tang gang attack. This Scrawled file fish had unusually defined and colored markings...beautiful!

Sharpnose Puffer

This smallest (that I'm aware of) member of the puffer family is probably the cutest as well. They are very common and mostly overlooked by divers. Try to get a closeup look at their markings...very nice!

Smooth Trunkfish
- These two battling Trunkfish are probably males settling a territorial dispute.
- Contrast the color of this one with the previous pair. Most fish are capable of and do change color this dramatically--often very quickly.
- This Boxfish juvenile, when very young, looks like a tiny die with wings. You really need a magnifying glass to see the amazing details.

Spotted Drum
- The juvenile Spotted Drum has just about got to be every diver's favorite fish. The elegant long fin and the stately back and forth pavane is irresistable.
- This was amazing! The day before, our friends had found this group of five of the tiniest Spotted Drums I've ever seen. When we got there the next day, only four were left.

Spotted Trunkfish
- Another of the common Boxfish that is seen on Bonaire's reefs.

Web Burrfish
- I remeber a Bonaire trip about 10 years ago when the reef was literally littered with these Web Burrfish. Now, its is very rare to see them.

Whitespotted Filefish
- These filefish come in various color-phases. You most often see them in presumably mated pairs.
- This is the Orange phase of the Whitespotted Filefish, a very common Bonairean reef inhabitant.

Reddish, Big Eyes

Blackbar Soldierfish

This poor little guy had a hook embedded in his mouth with quite a length of line attached. I managed to catch an end of the line, and Marcia used her scissors to snip all of the line off. We did not try to get the hook out.

Sharks and Rays

Southern Stingray
- This specimen just cruised right on by us on a dive at the Sabadeco Pier.
- While doing a safety stop in the shallows of Invisibles, this ray was intent on feeding in the sand. Quite amazing the way the plumes of silt billowed out of his gills.

Spotted Eagle Ray

After traversing the channel at Cai Lac, we came to the reef dropoff where this flight of rays came swooping in towards the shallows.

This ray was travelling along the reef top at the Sabadeco Pier. When it saw us, it veered off into the blue and allowed me to swim up fairly close. There was a pretty good current that day, but notice how the ray barely moves while gliding up-current.

We ran across this guy feeding in the shallows at Invisibles. It seemed to just totally ignore us.

Silvery

Bar Jack
- These two could either be in a territorial dispute or in a mating dance. Looks more like the dance to me.

Boga
- A common and spectacular sight off the Sabadeco Pier is a large ball of Bogas, swimming in intricate synchronized patterns, urged on by the pursuing jacks.

Great Barracuda

Its a common sight to see the barracuda being cleaned. With a slow approach you can get quite close.

Unlike a lot of other big silvery predators, the Barracuda often hunts by ambush. I've also seen them use me for cover--keeping me between some squid (one of their favorite...and mine...meal) and themself as they try to sneak closer.

Horse-eye Jack
- On the outer double reef at Alice in Wonderland, these guys were like a teenage gang up to something. Fascinating how they were tailing a large barracuda.

Saucereye Porgy
- The Porgies can be a bit confusing to tell apart. This clip clearly shows the marking that gives them their name.

Silversides

"Silversides" is a generic term for small silvery fish (herrings, anchovies, etc) that are really difficult to ID. Humann says they tend to congregate in the interiors of shipwrecks; such as the Helma Hooker this school was in.

Tarpon
- In the famed bowl in the Cai Lac Channel, it is common to see a hundred or more tarpons. This dive we had unusually good visibility, but not quire so many tarpon.
- Usually the visibility at Cai Channel is like pea soup. This is the best time to swim amidst 50 to 100 Tarpon!
- The salt pier is a fantastic dive for a videographer or photographer. On a sunny day its like diving in a cathedral, attended by masses of fish.

Sloping Head, Tapered Body
- French Grunt
  - Degassing after a wonderful dive at Yellow Submarine, we were accosted by this small gang of French Grunts intent on tasting our hands!
- Yellowtail Snapper
  - This is the first time I've seen a school of Yellowtail Snappers acting just like a Tang gang, pillaging _something_.

Small Ovals
- Sergeant Major
  - The Helma Hooker is an excellent place to see the Sergeant Major nests. It is the male who guards and tends to the eggs.

Small, Elongated Bottom-Dwellers
- Redlip Blenny
  - These ubiquitous blennys provide great entertainment in the surgy shallows. Just under the Eden Beach dock is a great place to watch them in comfort.
- Yellowheaded Jawfish
  - A great way to spend a safety stop is to watch these industrious housekeepers at work. If you are lucky, you can see the male tending the eggs in his mouth.

Swim with Pectoral Fins-Obvious Scales

Bluehead Wrasse
- These intermediate phase Blueheads are, well, yellow. You often see them swarming around soft coral eating something.

Creole Wrasse
- Creole Wrasse are the great commuters of Bonaire's reefs. They often stop along the way at well known cleaning stations to get parasites picked off.

Midnight Parrotfish
- This gorgeous parrotfish is difficult to get close to.

Princess Parrotfish

Diving the Helma Hooker, with the Volunteer Vets (came from all over the world to help with the animal shelter's sterilization clinic) we saw these Princess Parrotfish all munching coral, bouncing up and down as if to music.

Rainbow Parrotfish

Over the Cai Lac reef, we came across this group of eight or so supermales. The guy pictured here was clearly trying to intimidate the others--rushing about while working his jaws open and closed while charging the others.

Spanish Hogfish

Like many other juveniles, the young Spanish Hogfish clean parasites from other fish for a living. Its quite amazing to watch the hordes of fish begging for this service. In this clip, the customers are Brown Chromis and Sergeant Majors.

People
- Bart Snelder
  - Part owner of the excellent WannaDive operation shows his skill at blowing air rings.