Last time we were on Bonaire we had a hard time finding seahorses.
Can anybody tell us how you can best find them? Do they stay in certain places? Are they attracted to specific plants? Certain depths? Anything?

Bert

The same goes for anglefish....
Never ever seen/found one...

Cheers, Bert

Bert: Try Ole Blue for queen angel fish.

Bert:

If you ask around locally, you might find someone willing to share a current location. You might also find that many divers are pretty selective about who they share that information with -- word can spread and before you know it the seahorses feel stressed and head for another patch of reef.

Generally speaking, seahorses tend to hang out in a fairly small territory for weeks (months?) at a time. They are often attached to brushy soft coral although I have seen them on purple sponges as well. I do not know if there is a typical depth -- although I have tended to spot them in 35 to 50 FSW. Good luck!

I think Bert meant anglerfish or frogfish. They move around a bit also, but ask the staff at the dive operation you are using and they should be able to give you general directions for finding some. If you go out on a boat and there are seahorses or frogfish at the dive site, the DM's will take you to where the critters were last seen and try to find them for you.

Linnea, you are probably right, however I couldn't find "hengelaarsvis" in my English dictionary

And remember that both the seahorses and the frogfish survive by being nearly invisible. That and they are really VERY small creatures.

It would always take me several minutes of examining every branch of that black coral "bush" in front of Buddy to find the 2" long rascal hiding therein. And I dove that site twice a day for 10 days. Same with the yellow frog (business card sized)that lived on a coral head just a bit north of there.

In any event I do know that you can't move too slowly across a reef, and the slower you go the less you frighten the critters and the more you see.

The freedom to 'go slow' is one of the best reasons to shore dive: no 'dive master's express' tour up the reef and back aboard the boat. I suspect dive ops would benefit from encouraging 'slow dives': more divers happier from seeing more.

Bert
There is a seahorse on Front Porch that I believe has been there for a couple of years. The guys in Wannadive will show you.

/image{yellow seahorse}

There is also a very friendly seahorse just in front of Eden Beach, its been known to follow divers. Again ask Wannadive.

/image{friendly seahorse}

opps got that wrong.

Yellow seahorse


and a very friendly seahorse

Hum, I do like to friendly one!
Here is one we found last January.

David, so you were able to find the elusive seahorse at Front Porch huh?? Good job !!

There are two frogfish at Front Porch, very very easy to find. If I can find them, anyone can.

First you have to go down to the webcam and say hello to everyone... then follow the cable back up to 36 feet, and head north. You will come to some very new pink coral, and on one part of the coral, you will see a bushy, relatively small gorgonian... on the north side of that coral, you will find a large purple frogfish, and a small pink one. They are fascinating to watch. Good Luck, Bert !

Incidentally, I am on Bonaire right this very moment and will be until Wednesday. ;)

Ask Bob at Wannadive for directions to the seahorse, as I was completely unable to find him. Or her.

Kelly, my picture was taken on Klein Bonaire.
The DM was able to point him/her out to us. I would not have been able to find it without any directions.

Happy diving!

Kelly,

You mean this one? My flash didn't fire so it is a bit blue. This was taken May/June before the cam move.
Enjoy the rest of your stay.

Dave

Kelly,

To find the seahorse go slightly north of the large barrel (under the yatchs), you will see a overhead cable decending down to the wrecked tug boat. As the wreck comes into veiw there is a old cog wheel about 3 feet across and at 20 metres. The seahorse is just inshore from there.

Dave