The Island of Roatan

Eyes Of A Peacock Flounder

They say there is a mate for everyone, but it's ifficult to imagine with this face.

There are many peacocks on the reefs and many more juveniles. So, apparently this face is sexy to other flounder. Or maybe they fall for each other before that one eye migrates to meet the other and the fish takes on that flattened, side-stroke look.

Four-eyed Butterflyfish

This four-eyed butterfly was found on Coco View Wall. The reefs were thick with small tropicals like this.

Mostly, we found them on the reef-top in very shallow water. We would often see these and other butterfly fish in pairs.

Butterflyfish are one of the most common fish we see on reefs and like many, this one had a round, eye-like dot near its tail to confuse predators about which direction they're likely to flee.

Slender Filefish

Filefish are so named because of the hard forward spine that is an adaptation to their dorsal fin. It allows them to get in a hole, wedge in with that spine and make themselves nearly impossible to extricate.

Not sure that's how this one at Menagerie reef uses his spine, although he is clarly endowed like his cousins.

In my exeperience, these tiny guys rely on hiding vertically among the branches of soft corals, slowly but deliberately moving around the trunk as you move closer.

It was a pretty effective tactic against this picture predator. It took quite a while to get him in a position to make an image.