Have you been “accepted” by a school of fish, or made a fish friend?

[hilljo88]

Night dive in Grand Cayman. I look over at my buddy and there's a 4 foot tarpon about 6 inches from his tank. The tarpon would cruise with us, then dart ahead to feed. Our lights were attracting snacks for him. The fish stayed with us for about 30 minutes.

Garden of the Queen, Cuba: grouper followed us on many dives. One grouper in particular had distinct markings on its side and showed up on successive days.

 

[Rob Bibber]

Last weekend I was playing the "victim" for a dive buddy who was getting certified for Stress and rescue. My task was to lay on the bottom around 25 ft and pretend to be unconscious. While I was doing that a curious catfish swam right up to my mask to take a peek LOL. He hung around until my buddy showed up to "rescue" me.

 

[Ghetto Diver]

Atlantic Spadefish every time. If I see a cackle of 'em, I will swim to them and chill

 

[Hoag]

... I brought up a related subject here in the past and was met by not too serious responses. (No, I don't puke on demand.)
Does anyone have a way (besides Vienna sausages) to attract fish's attention and get them to interact? Lights? Tinsel? Sounds? Artificial lures?

I once saw an extremely well known photographer dive with a can of spray cheese. They would use the spray cheese as a method to "stage" the fish exactly where they wanted for a good composition.

 

[Hoag]

Diving in Socorro several years ago, there was one particular Manta who decided that he & I were buds. It spent the entire dive no more than a few feet away from me. We dove that site a total of 3 times and everytime we did, within a couple minutes of hitting the water, the same Manta (it had very distinct lightning bolt markings) would come over and hang out with me for the rest of the dive.

 

[Nick Steele]

While freediving I usually become shelter for tiny bar jacks and at times will get a triggerfish to follow. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s the shirts I wear that attracts them. When I wear my usual long sleeve light green Colombia or River Warrior shirt I get “buddies” any other color shirt I don’t get “buddies”. Two memorable moments stick out to me over the past 5+ yrs.

1) About two years ago one day looking for lobster just cruising the reef when 10 or so shrimp drift into view. Once I see them they sort of all scattered and ducked down toward the reef 15-20ft down. Although one shrimp decided to hangout with me and he crawled all throughout my shirt over the next 20 minutes or so. After the initial phase of being cool I did wonder if something bigger would take a swipe at him and hit me (never did happen).

2) A couple months ago while lobstering I had a very curious triggerfish approach me. At first he kept his distance and he was around for 30 minutes while I gathered 4 lobster. When I grabbed the fourth lobster a leg came off and the triggerfish went for it and got a couple bites. After this he came up to me and would nibble at my legs/fins. I reached out to see if he would come nibble my finger and sure enough he got close before I backed away lol. Anyways I take the GoPro out and hold it still and sure enough I was able to get some video of him trying to eat the GoPro (don’t know how to post video so here are stills).

 

[MichaelMc]

Skin diving off Catalina Island, I got to hang out in a not too big hole in some schools. I was more accepted snorkeling off Belize right above some stag horn coral with a big school of small fish, they seemed to not mind me at all, but I was more floating about on the surface than anything else. A very cool moment on scuba was my hanging out against the current between some rocks and turning to my left to find a fairly big fish hanging out into the current next to me. I didn't study them intently as I didn't want them to freak and leave. It was a fun moment, just chilling with my bud. I got to solo scuba dive some recently and small fish schools really dart a bit away at each exhale. No playful fin tugging sea lion friends yet, I have my hopes.

 

[aquacat8]

Those are some great stories! I would love to have a manta hang out with me! Spray cheese LOL...

 

[Patoux01]

Not quite made a friend, I think this was quite the opposite, but maybe some fish psychologist will say it wasn't.

 

[Damselfish]

Not quite made a friend, I think this was quite the opposite, but maybe some fish psychologist will say it wasn't.

Definitely not friendly. Some types of triggerfish are really aggressive about defending their nests which are best avoided. I think that's a Picasso triggerfish, one of the meaner ones. I just came back from a trip where someone got bit on the head by a Titan.