This should be sooo easy

[bmaber]

I am just a starting "vaction diver", and from the days of my Salt Water Aquarium I know few fish I see, like Tangs, Angles, box fish and triggers, but the one I see the most in the Caribean is the one I don't know the name of. One dive master said they were grunts? Any ideas, these things live by the thousands in areas like Cozumel. They are plain silver with a hint of yellow on them, in some case a very distinct yellow stripe.

 

[Dave Zimmerly]

Yup, you gotta bunch of grunts.

Dave (aka "Squirt")

 

[wreckchick]

French and White Grunts, most likely. I'm not as versed as I should be on grunts due to the sheer numbers.

Rachel

 

[H2Andy]

the ones with the yellow pectoral and anal fins, dark rear dorsal fin and tails
and "yellow stripes" on their body are blue stripped grunts
(French grunt have a distinct "two layer" pattern, with the
stripes on top being parallel to the spine and the stripes below
arching at an angle; also, French grunts have yellow, not dark tails)

the ones with the dark rear dorsal and tail, but no yellow in the body,
are sailor's choice (another kind of grunt).

there's a third group of what look like sailor's choice, but these
don't have any dark to their fins. i believe these are white grunt.
they lack the black rear dorsal and dark tail of the sailor's choice.
note that they have a clear dorsal line which "humps" up with their body.

 

[Chaseh]

and they do grunt

 

[Tamas]

This should be sooo easy

they are a bunch of fish!

 

[bmaber]

Thanks gang, that's one more thing I can note in my log book.

 

[Jim Ernst]

they are a bunch of fish!

yup ,looks like fish to me too, lol!!

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

Looks like blue striped grunts (black tails), white grunts and another type. The one that Andy is calling a sailors choice, may be a snapper or another grunt. Sailors Choice has a more sloping head. There maybe some pigfish in there also.

 

[H2Andy]

The one that Andy is calling a sailors choice, may be a snapper or another grunt. Sailors Choice has a more sloping head.

0h!!!! a wager!!!

ok, i accept your (foreign) beer wager next time we get together.

i believe those are SAILOR'S CHOICE: behold their round eye with large pupil!
behold their sloping foreheads (they do too have sloping foreheads); behold
their tiny patches of black! behold their black dorsal fins and tails!

these are, in short, Sailor's Choice, and my friend Heineken here says "YEA"

eyebrow

Heineken: Yeah...