Australia has 4,000 species of reef fish
The problem snorkeling here at Lizard Island on Australia's Great Barrier Reef is that the reefs have too many fish.
Of the approximately 13,500 species of marine fish in the world, 4,000 are here. Right here, it seems.
Some fish I see -- Moorish idols, cleaner wrasses, yellow tangs -- are common in Hawaii and feel like old friends. Countless species, however, are new to me. And to muddy the waters, different books have different names for the same fish.
One heartening fact about fish names came to me this week in the book "Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and the Coral Sea," by Jack Randall, Gerald Allen and Roger Steene (UH Press). In the introduction Randall writes, "The common names of fishes used in this book are primarily the Australian names. These are often different from the fish names used in other parts of the English-speaking world."
Aha. That justifies my confusion when someone here tells me that a potato cod is a groper and a coral trout is rockcod. I now know that both those fish are in the family the rest of the world calls groupers.
Identifying groupers (scientific name Serranidae) is particularly hard. With more than 500 species, it is one of the largest families of marine fish in the world, and one of the most diverse in name, color, shape and size. The family members do, however, have some features in common.
All groupers are carnivores, and early in their lives most are egg-laying females. That job done, they then turn into males.
In general, groupers are oval-shaped and bear spots, stripes or marbled patterns. But it's their thick lips on big frowny mouths that give them away. Also, in many species, the lower jaw protrudes beyond the upper, giving the fish a distinct pout.
The largest of all bony fish on the coral reef is the Queensland grouper, growing to 9 feet long and weighing nearly 900 pounds. I haven't seen one yet, but I believe I'll know it if I do.
Also in the grouper family are three species of soapfish. These don't resemble each other in size, shape, color or markings, but they have a common feature. All produce a slimy mucus coat called grammistin, a bitter-tasting toxin that discourages predators. When researchers fed a small soapfish to a hungry red firefish (Australian for turkeyfish), it quickly spit out the offering.
Now that I've studied soapfish pictures and learned they live in caves, I might have a chance identifying them.
One well-known grouper I've seen is the potato cod, growing to 5 feet long. Potato cods hang out with divers at Cod Hole, a popular dive site east of Lizard Island. Commercial dive boat operators are allowed to hand-feed these big fish but must work together and follow strict rules. The potato cods there get 2.2 pounds of fresh fish per day.
Other notable groupers I've met on these reefs are tomato cod, blue Maori cod and one of my favorites, a Chinese footballer.
Some Aussie fish names amuse me, and others are hard to classify, but I would never be critical. I live in a place, after all, where people call the reef triggerfish a humuhumunukunukuapuaa.
I'm enjoying learning new fish names from my books and my Australian boat neighbors. It's a good thing I like it. I have about 3,990 more to go.