In August I received this email from a reader, Gordy: "If you are looking for pipefish, spend some time looking amongst the spines of the long spined sea urchin. … They hide in there looking for all the world like a spine and of course are well protected. Used to be that most wana had at least one. Maybe they were not pipefish, but a variety of trumpet fish. Interesting none the less."
Interesting, yes, because I have never seen a fish that looked like a pipefish or a trumpet fish hiding among wana spines. I have, however, seen lots of baby damselfish sheltering among those needlelike spines.
While snorkeling in about four feet of water, I spotted several long-spined sea urchins (wana in Hawaiian) with iridescent blue patterns so dazzling in the morning sun that I stopped to take their picture. Only after I downloaded the photos to my computer did I realize that a couple of "spines" had spots on them. Without realizing it, I had photographed two tiny domino damselfish.
The disklike, black-and-white-spotted damselfish that showed up in my picture are common in the South Pacific. Their common name is three-spot or domino damselfish.
Hawaii has its own similar species, called the Hawaiian domino damselfish or Hawaiian dascyllus (pronounced da-SILL-us). (Dascyllus is the scientific name of this damselfish group.)
Domino damselfish swim in small schools on the reefs of Hawaii, the South Pacific and Indian Ocean like perky poker chips, hovering in the water column as they eat passing plankton. The largest are about 4 inches in diameter; the smallest are thumbnail-size.
Juvenile domino damselfish are fun to play with. At the approach of a snorkeler, the entire school rushes into the folds of a branching coral head. First there are dozens of cute little fish in front of you; then there are none.
Looking into the coral’s arms, all you see are pairs of dark eyes peeking out. Hold still a moment and the curious fish venture out. Any fast movement, though, will again send them into hiding.
Domino damselfish will also take cover among crown-of-thorns starfish spines, bury themselves in sea anemone tentacles and seek protection between wana spines.
I don’t know which creature Gordy meant when he wrote that his fish looked like a sea urchin spine, but I think he might have seen a long, narrow shrimp commonly found on wana.
I’ve never spotted these shrimp or anything that looks like a pipefish among wana spines, but you can bet I’ll be looking more carefully in the future. Thanks, Gordy, for the heads-up.
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Reach Susan Scott at www.susanscott.net.
