FTW dive report: Tropicals and body parts sighted

[agilis]

@CT-Rich

Nice Reef Butterflyfish

That was a Spotfin Butterflyfisn, Chaetodon ocellatus. They are by far the most numerous Butterflyfish swept up into the northeastern US by the Gulf Stream. Some days, in some places like the NJ inlets, you can see dozens in just a few minutes of diving along inlet rockpiles. The fish usually called a Reef Butterfly, is C. sedentarius, very similar to a Spotfin, but with an outline that is more squarish than round, less brilliantly white, and retaining a black bar at the lower part of its caudal peduncle which Spotfins lose as they grow to maturity. Reef BFs are exceedingly rare north of the Carolinas. Spotfins are the most numerous here in NJ/NY/ Conn/ RI.

Four eyed BF (C. capistratus) juveniles are seen with regularity, Banded BFs (C. striatus) rarely, only occasionally, Reef BFs very seldom. I've caught all of them (they are all juveniles up here) and raised every species to maturity. Spotfins and Reef BFs are easy, Four eyed and Banded much more difficult. Live blackworms are essential in their early maintenance. I've been fooling around with this sort of thing since God was a boy, volunteering as a collector with various university and aquarium projects. Sometimes we've found amazing things. I once caught a Caribbean Blue Tang, about halfway through its transition from yellow to blue in Menemsha Inlet on Martha's Vineyard. I think this collecting was the most fun of any diving activity I've ever done.

 

[scubadada]

Hi @agilis

I see Spotfin, Reef, Banded, and Foureye Butterflyfish on every dive in SE FL. Juvenile?

 

[RyanT]

@agilis, glad to see you here. I hope you are recovering well!

 

[agilis]

Hi @agilis

I see Spotfin, Reef, Banded, and Foureye Butterflyfish on every dive in SE FL. Juvenile?

Here in New Jersey we get juveniles, from the larvae and tiny juveniles swept from the Gulf and the Keys by the Gulf Stream, carried up by the millions in the plankton, some settling inshore when currents and winds blow lenses of blue water into the inlets and beaches. These tiny tropicals thrive when the inshore water is warm enough, populating jetties and inlets until cold water in October kills them all.

In addition to the 4 BF species you named there is a fifth I've never seen north of Cuba. The Atlantic Long Nosed Butterflyfish (Prognathodes aculeatus) is a stunning creature, the smallest of the Atlantic/Caribbean Butterflies They are pretty common in Dominica, especially in deeper water. I have one in the single SW aquarium I'm still able to maintain, not really large enough for full grown BFs of the other species, but able to accommodate my Prognathodes. I miss the Angelfish and other larger fish I was able to keep in the past, but some concessions to age are unavoidable. Keeping SW fish properly is hard work. I wonder if I'll still be fit enough to do some collecting next year.

The distribution of countless billions of tiny fishes on oceanic currents, almost all carried to their death, is a natural process dating back many millions of years. It's one of the main ways that species expand their ranges, constantly swept on currents, only becoming permanent when conditions change in their favor over long stretches of geologic time.

I became interested in these colorful vagrants when I was just a kid, spending summers at the Jersey shore, with my mask and snorkel. I suppose it's the longest lasting enthusiasm of my life, predating and outlasting even girls. For the most part. I have a few life lists, like bird watchers. I've done a great deal of diving in the tropics, in Florida, and various other places with charms that far exceed what we have here in New Jersey. Still, finding these creatures, so far from home and with so fragile a grip on life, has its own intoxication. It's what led me into scuba and has given me insights into so many other things. The world is still a marvelous place, and I'm happy to be alive.