Inalara
Contributor
I worked as a dive guide for a while and so never had my camera when I came across this fish, so apologies, no pictures.
We named this fish "evil Eddie" as it attacked divers, specifically if one of the divers was further away from their buddy and appeared alone from the group.
So what can I tell you about "Eddie":
I only ever saw one (assuming it was always the same fish) on a specific dive site in the Celebes sea at Sipadan island/Borneo.
I am sure it was from the wrasse family from its basic shape (here's where I find out it's no relation!), the closest looking picture (for shape/fin looks) I could ever find was Clown wrasse - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"Eddie" was a dark green/blue solid colouration with light markings had sharp canine teeth that protruded outwards from his top and bottom jaw and overlapped slightly, I can't remember exactly how the top and bottom teeth overlapped, just that they appeared to cross infront of his mouth.
He was about 40-50 cm's and was encountered between 5-25 meters, generally he was over the reef at the top in the 5-10 meter range, but the dive site had a sloping bank to 20-25 meters and he could be found anywhere up to about that depth.
I never met him, nor did any of the guides I was diving with at the time, along the wall, or swimming past in the blue, so he appeared to like having a reef under him
He appeared to be very territorial and had a wide ranging area that he covered and while he didn't appear aggressive to other fish, once he "tagged" a dive group, he would follow until you left the water often times taking a bite/attempted bite (had a few times where he drew blood from his "victim")
I put the attacks down to territory defence, since it happened often during the 3 months or so I worked there, I discounted protecting a nest due purely on the widespread area he was found over and the fact that once tagged he would follow and follow and... you get the picture.
Also the area (and all the dive shops I knew of) had a policy of not feeding fish, so I wouldn't think his behaviour was due to not being fed by specific diver groups, unless he was *swept* there, from some other area (there had been a 2 week storm shortly before) and he did *seem* to appear one day.
I'd be curious to know what you think "Eddie" was from the description.
We named this fish "evil Eddie" as it attacked divers, specifically if one of the divers was further away from their buddy and appeared alone from the group.
So what can I tell you about "Eddie":
I only ever saw one (assuming it was always the same fish) on a specific dive site in the Celebes sea at Sipadan island/Borneo.
I am sure it was from the wrasse family from its basic shape (here's where I find out it's no relation!), the closest looking picture (for shape/fin looks) I could ever find was Clown wrasse - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"Eddie" was a dark green/blue solid colouration with light markings had sharp canine teeth that protruded outwards from his top and bottom jaw and overlapped slightly, I can't remember exactly how the top and bottom teeth overlapped, just that they appeared to cross infront of his mouth.
He was about 40-50 cm's and was encountered between 5-25 meters, generally he was over the reef at the top in the 5-10 meter range, but the dive site had a sloping bank to 20-25 meters and he could be found anywhere up to about that depth.
I never met him, nor did any of the guides I was diving with at the time, along the wall, or swimming past in the blue, so he appeared to like having a reef under him
He appeared to be very territorial and had a wide ranging area that he covered and while he didn't appear aggressive to other fish, once he "tagged" a dive group, he would follow until you left the water often times taking a bite/attempted bite (had a few times where he drew blood from his "victim")
I put the attacks down to territory defence, since it happened often during the 3 months or so I worked there, I discounted protecting a nest due purely on the widespread area he was found over and the fact that once tagged he would follow and follow and... you get the picture.
Also the area (and all the dive shops I knew of) had a policy of not feeding fish, so I wouldn't think his behaviour was due to not being fed by specific diver groups, unless he was *swept* there, from some other area (there had been a 2 week storm shortly before) and he did *seem* to appear one day.
I'd be curious to know what you think "Eddie" was from the description.
