USVI-On-Line

To those out there who are so knowledgeable in identifying fish. I love when you label your pictures. I realize these are very common fish but I would love to know their names so this summer if will get better at recognizing what I am seeing. I plan on keeping a file and adding to each time we snorkel.

#1
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#2
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#3
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#4
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#5
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#6
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#7
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#8
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#9
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#10
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#11
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#12
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It will be nice to call a few common fish by name instead of the yellow or pink one.

Off the top of my head (could be wrong on some of my guesses)...

#1 - Flounder

#2 - Sergeant major (love these guys!)

#3 - Squirrelfish

#4 - ? Some kind of parrotfish?

#5 - Scrawled filefish

#6 - Upsidedown jellyfish (cool! I've never seen one on STJ)

#7 - Parrotfish on the left, French angelfish on the right

#8 - Should know this one, but I don't!

#9 - ?

#10 - Bearded fireworm

#11 - Ballyhoo

#12 - Some kind of damselfish (top), maybe a goby on the bottom (?)

Save this in your favorites.
http://www.reefguide.org/carib/index1.html

Thanks, vav.

If you would like to dig deeper, the 3 volumes ("Reef Fish Identification", "Reef Creature Identification" and "Reef Coral Identification": Florida Caribbean Bahamas) by Paul Humann/Ned Deloach are the best, in my opinion, for us Caribbean visitors. These books are more extensive - though I still find creatures that are not in these books. They are heavy for traveling but there seems to be a travel edition (less extensive) now at least for "Reef Fish" for those who don't travel with computers:

http://www.fishid.com/traveledition.html

http://www.amazon.com/Reef-Fish-Identif ... 566&sr=8-1

#8 is a Sand Diver

#9 could be a Schoolmaster. The photo in the book is shot from the front and looks like the forehead slopes more than this one. It could be due to the different angles of the shots.

JIM

I love those books but that web site is a great resource especially when traveling with carry-on only and can't take the set of three books. Thanks for sharing the website! After finding the leopard flatworm last trip and losing our minds, tryIng to figure out what he was, I want to be prepared as possible!!

Thanks everyone for your help. I booked marked the website. It is awesome. Thanks for the tips on the books too.

EagleRayLover wrote:I love those books but that web site is a great resource especially when traveling with carry-on only and can't take the set of three books.

Yes, they are heavy! As much as I love those books, they stay home when we go to St. John (or I just take one and "Reef Creature" would be my choice ).

We've never taken computers to St. John, so we have used this book to identify the major species while on island: http://www.amazon.com/Snorkeling-Guide- ... gy_b_img_b. Many species are not in this book but it's good for starters.

By the way, #3 is a Blackbar Soldierfish and #4 is a Redband Parrotfish. #12 is a wrasse but not sure what kind.

Thanks Pickle,

I added the 3 volumes on my Christmas wish list.