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