Key Largo Shallow Reef Report and Pics 7/28-7/29/2018

[Nick Steele]

Love the pics man! It’s always nice when a spouse will join in our hobbies (mostly lol).

As for the grouper it looks like a black but could be a gag. One of the easiest way to distinguish between the two is looking at the pattern on them gags have unclosed squares while blacks have fully closed squares. But atleast in the Atlantic the size limits are the same at 24” so if you do confuse it for the other it’s not a big problem unless you take two of one species.

As for the darker fish of the same species I just think it’s more of a feeling of the fish in the moment. I have watched hog fish that were white just like you describe turn into vibrant colors within seconds.

 

[IncreaseMyT]

As for the grouper it looks like a black but could be a gag. One of the easiest way to distinguish between the two is looking at the pattern on them gags have unclosed squares while blacks have fully closed squares. .

I actually got a better look at it, by the time I swung the camera around though he was behind a coral head and the pic was blurry so I didn't use that one, it was def a gag. I can tell the difference but I never knew exactly why and now that you said that it totally makes sense, great info.

 

[IncreaseMyT]

As for the darker fish of the same species I just think it’s more of a feeling of the fish in the moment. I have watched hog fish that were white just like you describe turn into vibrant colors within seconds.

Even the barracuda looked really dark: I always see hooks in their mouth. If you could come up with a good way to get them out, like small but long bolt cutters, you would help a lot of fish and I bet make a bit of money

 

[Nick Steele]

Even the barracuda looked really dark: I always see hooks in their mouth. If you could come up with a good way to get them out, like small but long bolt cutters, you would help a lot of fish and I bet make a bit of money

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I’d be the one to try and help the cuda if it would let me approach it tbh lol. I helped a scorpion fish on a cleanup dive in June that had a 2ft leader with a weight hanging out of its mouth. I was able to remove most of the leader before it wiggled away. I just grabbed the leader wrestled him carefully and used my met shears.

 

[IncreaseMyT]

Here is the full video that I got of him, if you blow it up full screen you can get a pretty good look at him Nick