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“Getting in a good look”

Big eyes move around underwater almost like a cloud of interested youngsters, swirling with little energy as can be seen in the background whilst those with more courage come up in a group to get a good look. They were quite accommodating, allowing the photographer to join the school provided no sudden moves were made, or vast amounts of noisy bubbles were exhaled. the photographer loves photographing these fish since when you see them first they look like a school of black and silver fish, but when the strobe lights them up, the black turns out to be vivid red, a perennial crowd pleaser contrasting with the cool blues of the water. When beginner divers see the photos they ask where the bright red fish were since they only saw black and silver ones.

Crescent-Tail Bigeye – Priacanthus hamrur

Priacanthus hamrur is a reef-associated species, living in tropical marine waters on outer reef slopes and rocky areas as well as in lagoons at depths of 8 to 250 meters. The body of the Crescent-Tail Bigeye is relatively deep, strongly compressed laterally. The eyes are very large and red (even in case of silver livery). The mouth is oblique with a protruding lower jaw and small conical teeth. The bodies of these fish go through various phases of colour, which may vary from orange to entirely red, entirely silver, or silver with six broad red bands.

Nikon D300 Nikkor 10.5mm f2.8 Fisheye lens, 1/400th sec @ f11, ISO 200, Sea & Sea Housing and Two Sea & Sea YS250 strobes on ¼ power.
Taken on scuba at 25m at Manta Reef, Tofo, Mozambique

Photograph by Andrew Woodburn