Chasing off Remoras

[spog]

Okay, so I'm off the coast of Thailand, warm water, 12m depth in a party of 6. We see the usual bunch of fishy stuff, then I see a thin grey/black fish swimming alongside the legs of the lady in front of me. Then it appears to be nipping at her leg. "How cute" thinks I, "it's trying to eat her". Then it gets a bit more serious and I begin to think that it may actually be biting her. Then I realise that it looks a bit like a baby baracuda so I try to chase it off her leg. However, instead of swimming off, it moves up her leg to her....posterior...so I leave it alone (I didn't know her and thought that she'd probably appreciate me interfering with her backside it even less than a fish.

Then it disappears up further and next I see it swimming along her tank and I suddenly realise that it's a remora.

Pretty cool. But then it must have moved back to her uncovered leg and she must have felt it and started jerking around to get it off. That was that, I thought.

But 3 mins later, I feel a 'bite' on me leg, look down and see this thing swimming along my calf. I flailed my legs and to my horror, it began to swim up my leg - not down and away! That's not the direction I like biting things to be moving! A lot more thrashing around and I think I lost it (along with a weight from my pocket and a fin).

And then it happens again, twice more in the next 10 mins!

There was one point when I turned around and saw it swimming towards me. I adopted a very aggressive posture - if this were on the surface, I'd be swinging a pool cue and shouting things about its mother. To my horror, it carried straight on towards me without even hesitating - even mad dogs paused when you turn on them!

No matter when I did, I could not get rid of it and I spent the last part of the diving feeling very uncomfortable.

Perhaps if I were wearing a full-length with gloves, I wouldn't have minded so much (I would probably have found it kind of fun), but having something attach itself to your flesh is distinctly unenjoyable.

Anyone know how to make this little sods take a hint and go away. I could have taken a swipe with a knife, but I don't think I'd have managed to hit it, my buddies probably wouldn't appreciate me doing a Freddy K. within arm's length of them and TBH, I didn't really want to hurt it, just make it go away.

The only thought I could come up with was to carry a small net, catch it and release it after the dive.

spog

 

[archman]

Remora's can be a huge pain in the butt, or leg, arm, mask, chest, etc... With larger ones, I've never been able to get one to leave my dive group alone. Smaller ones can be lured off with other fishes, especially sharks.
I've had limited success blasting air bursts at them with my octo. You have to do it real close to them though, and they aren't discouraged for very long.

 

[metaldector]

I've had experience with Ramora during the 3 minute safety stop. They tried to attach to my side. If you take a hand (gloved) to them and push forward they'll break off. If you pull down on them they'll dig in. This only happened to me once. It went off to bug someone else. :11:

 

[japan-diver]

I've had experience with Ramora during the 3 minute safety stop. They tried to attach to my side. If you take a hand (gloved) to them and push forward they'll break off. If you pull down on them they'll dig in. This only happened to me once. It went off to bug someone else. :11:

Had one that hung out at one of our favorite training spots and would regularly attach to students or instructors while on the tour. They don't actually bite but use a sucker like an octopus has to attach so it doesn't hurt even on bare skin for them to attach. But as said above don't pull down to remove them as they will really suck on and leave a hickey :10: , or tear a wetsuit, push forward and they release. Had one stay on my tank until I stood up after the dive and when he left the water he decided to let go.

 

[H2Andy]

here in jax, they usually bug us on the line. luckily, i've never been around when one
attaches, though i've heard they do and it's a pain to get them off.

i have seen a diver take a knife out and try to stab a sharksucker (very similar to a remora, with a pale stripe down the middle) ... the thing wouldn't leave him alone.

but it was like trying to poke a fly with a toothpick...good luck...

i calmed him down, and all was well. i just "fluttered" my hand at the sharksucker.

i was thinking, do we really want to put fish blood in the water? being paranoid, of course...

 

[gabyne]

I also had some experiences with Remoras but a really unpleasant one with a small puffer (!). We were diving at Bali's Secret Bay and a small puffer was coming close which I experienced so far is quite rare as they are always very shy. Then it "attacked" my boyfriend and he was a bit panicking - first I had to laugh a lot because it looked so funny - the small thing driving away the big diver, but then it came after me with snarled teeth and it looked rather frightening! So I decided to flee too but it didn't let go... So I punched it with my camera housing (quite hard!) but it made it even more aggressive swimming faster and faster trying to bite our legs and arms... So we speeded up like crazy and finally it stopped chasing us... Weird creatures there... (also a clown fish (!) chased us for about 10 or 15 m out of its anemone... ???)