Just returned from Hawaii

[philter4]

I just got back from a collection trip to Hawaii, I have to give much thanks to the collectors over there for taking me again. the water was bumpy, and we couldn't dive the south which is where the flame wrasses are (which are one of the reasons I went) but still had a great time and collected several interesting fish. One of the best catches didn't do well in our buckets, in all the guys caught 9 hawaiian longfin anthias, all they took were females and still 6 didn't make it more then a few hours in our holding tanks

Here is a female on the boat

There were males, but they do even worse then young so none were collected

Another great fish that was caught were the bandit angels-they collected 4, I didn't see any except for big adults and on a dive that I didn't make they got 3 really nice crosshatch triggers, 2 males and a female.

One of the bandit angels

And the trio of crosshatches

I wasn't there but the week before they caught a really nice small dragon moray, this is one that was for sale in a shop that we delivered to

I collected several nice fish, a few fishers angels, more female potters leopard wrasse )to add to my herum) and some tangs and other wrasses, but mostly I just dove and took very poor quality photos, some of which are below...
4-line wrasse

coral head with fish at around 80 ft

Here are a couple of shots of a bicolor anthias that I brought home

Here is the female potters leopard to go with my others

I only dove 2 days, but I took my niece with me and we snorkeled and looked in the tide pools between surfing and going out to eat, overall, it was too short but a nice trip.

 

[Western_reefer]

VERY nice!!



I sent you a PM.

 

[bored4long]

Glad to hear you had a safe trip, Phil.

How big are those triggers?

 

[philter4]

The triggers were between 6 and 8 inches, it is too early in the year for babies, but the 3 were really nice. I was having issues with my health, (MY kidneys are still not working and some days I don't feel very well) so on that perticular dive I didn't go in, but later in the day I felt better and dove the last couple of dives, they were collected fairly deep, 130 ft on that dive, and in hind site I wish I would have been down on that dive because the way they hide would have given me great photo oppertunities in the water, they hover over their holes and wait until the last minute before diving in, my nets have shorter handles then the Hawaiian guys (collecting in FL is very different then HI), but I would have had a great oppertunity to photo them as they hover in place waiting to dive into the hole.

 

[Brian Prestwood]

Hey Phil

It is good to hear you had a good time. The hawaiian leopard wrasse is one of my favs.

 

[philter4]

Thanks Brian, you were invited on that trip, you missed a good one, lots of animals as well as some really nice collections. I'm making another trip in the winter as that is the time of year when I can dive where the flame wrasses are.

 

[Auntbeez]

The leopard wrasses is a pretty one... would love to hear more about your trip and the collection process.

 

[Lacy]

I love the colors of the wrasses and anthias fish.

 

[mpoletti]

Very nice Phil, How many bandits were caught?

 

[tcoral]

Wow, how big were the crosshatches? That's a gorgeous eel too.