I was diving one day in Bonaire and happened to be taking a video of something I forget what was and along comes a Spanish Hogfish. It smacks its tail pretty hard up against a purple tube sponge then swims off. Did not think much of it as certain fish "flash" against sponges to rid themselves of parasites. Kind of like a scratching post for an old cow.
But later on closer examination of the video and watching it several times the fish was not glancing off the sponge in a manner I would expect for flashing. It really "smacked" this sponge hard with it tail, enough to shake the sponge pretty hard. Then I also noticed the fish turned around enough to look at the opening at the top of the sponge.
Then it dawned on me. Very often in the center opening of these sponges live small goby fish and sometimes small shrimp and even small crabs. The Spanish Hog fish was smacking the sponge then seeing if it shook any critters loose it could gobble up, but seeing none moved on.
I've spent something on the order of 3000 hours under water over the last 45 years. I still see fish doing new stuff and it never ceases to amaze me.
Last edited by snrub; 07/23/16 11:20 PM.
