On Sat, 29 Jul 2000 00:03:30 -0400, Krazy Kiwi <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Krazy Kiwi <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>Ive seen all sorts of sizes & colours - striped, grey or brownish-black.
>>>Of course being lazy buggers they attach themselves to all sorts of fish,
>>>sharks, whalesharks, turtles, people (especially fins) and bottoms of
>>>boats. Here is a link to Phillip Colla's pics of remoras .. the manta &
>>>mobula rays have some good pics of them.
>>>http://www.oceanlight.com/html/remora_sp.html
>
>On Fri, 28 Jul 2000 21:51:01 -0400, Reef Fish replied with:
>>These are FAT and LAZY buggers.  Seen them on the backs of mantas in
>>Cocos Island and divers use them as handles to ride the 18-ft mantas.
>>But the ramoras we saw were skinny fellas (grey with black/white
>>stripes) and were very active swimming around and didn't seem to
>>care whether they find anything to attach to or not.  :-)
>
>Ah! You said the key word ... *skinny* fellas*. This is more than likely
>the Slender Suckerfish -  Echeneis naucrates (Linnaeus)
>The first time I saw one of these was when I was just finishing off a solo
>dive up at Coral Bay. Was busy photographing some moray eels when the
>slender suckerfish zipped around me in a very agitated state. I immediately
>started looking around for the shark that he may have been attached to, to
>no avail. Here's a link to one coloured variation ... Ive also seen the
>same species coloured mostly black with a white stripe.
>http://www.bigfishtackle.com/fish_species/species_blowhards.htm#1
>Viv

Blowhards?  :-)  Nice pic of THAT fella.  Not MY skinny fellas.
Close though -- the ones on yours have the top-and-bottom (dorsal
and pectoral?) frilly stuff near the tail fin that are not on
the French Polynesian ones, and the black/white stripes are much
more pronounced on yours.

You and Strike will just have to wait till I get a couple pics scanned.

-- Bob.