This fish is the Stoplight Parrotfish that we saw snorkeling on Friday. When we first tried to identify it we thought it was a Snowy Grouper but upon closer examination we realized it had to be a Parrotfish because of its large scales.

On Friday, January 6 we were assigned our collection groups and I was partnered with Celeste and Gary. The water was perfect for snorkeling and we were able to take about 150 pictures as well as collect some pretty cool things. My favorite picture was of the Stoplight Parrotfish juvenile (Sparisoma viride) and the coolest creature we were able to collect was a Comet Star (Ophidiaster guildingii) which is a species of sea stars. After dinner Steph and I studied for our ID’s. We came up with some crazy sayings to remember which common names go with which scientific names. For example to remember the scientific name for a Sergeant Major we can up with the saying Adolf Hitler plays the saxophone. The scientific name is Abodefduf Saxatilis.

This is our comet Star trying to hide in one the filtering tubes in our tank.

On Saturday, January 7 we had the pleasure of seeing a peacock flounder. Celeste took a video of it and then we attempted to catch it but our net wasn’t big enough. Even though we didn’t catch it we saw how it can change colors as we chased it from a sandy area into a patch of coral. After we were done with lecture and snorkeling for the day Steph and I talked about potential project ideas but we still have no idea what we are going to do so we’re going to go work on that now!

This is the peacock flounder hiding in the sand flats.   

-Nicole