Diving with angelfish in Palau, Caribbean, Indonesia and even the Galapagos Islands is just spectacular because these fish are large, extremely colorful and super tame.
They have little fear of divers and are vivid blue, yellow, orange, green or gray. Almost all tropical reefs have large colorful angelfish and they are the favorite fish for divers to take photos of because they usually come right up and look into the camera. I have over a thousand angelfish pictures and video clips worldwide, but I have to travel outside of Hawai‘i to find them.
The large 12 to 14 inch long angelfish feed on algae and they usually live in calm water on the inside of barrier reefs. Here in Hawai‘i, a big angelfish would get smashed in the big surf and would not last a day.
Hawai‘i is very unique because our islands are relatively new compared to most other tropical islands like Tahiti or Palau. On the Big Island, we have new lava reefs being formed every few years, which makes it difficult for a lot of common fish species.
The Hawaiian Islands have not been above the surface of the sea for long enough to develop outside barrier coral reefs like you would see around Bora Bora, so our fish species have to learn to surf, or hide from the surf.
In Hawai‘i, we do have very colorful angelfish like the potter’s angelfish and the flame angelfish, but they are only 2 to 3 inches long and many divers have never even seen one. Due to large crashing waves, our angelfish live in cracks in the reef where it is safe and they rarely leave the safety of their shelter and when they do they dart right back into the reef when approached by a diver. So it is very hard to get good pictures of Hawaiian angelfish.
The large tropical angelfish feed on algae and small invertebrates that grow on the reef and they have to eat all the time to maintain their large size. On the other hand, the Hawaiian angelfish do not have a lot of food growing on the reef due to the big surf so they have a hard time finding enough food to grow.
Just about anyone with a camera can get a picture of a large angelfish in Palau or the Philippines, but here in Hawai‘i it took me 10 years of trying to get one good video clip of a 2-inch long flame angelfish. I knew where a pair of these fish lived, but every time I got close to them they darted into the reef and hid.
I ended up setting up my camera and turning it on, then waiting 20 minutes for one to finally show itself for five seconds before darting back into the reef again. But it was long enough to get a good video clip of these extremely beautiful fish.
You can see the Hawaiian angelfish in my movie The Worlds Guide to Hawaiian Reef Fish and the flame angelfish in my Koloa Landing documentary movie up on my website at www.underwater2web.com.
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Terry Lilley is a marine biologist living in Hanalei Kaua‘i and co-founder of Reef Guardians Hawai‘i, a nonprofit on a mission to provide education and resources to protect the coral reef. To donate to Reef Guardians Hawaii go to www.reefguardianshawaii.org.
