Saw this little fellow yesterday at Barcadera any idea what he is - Burr Fish?




No mermaids snorkelling at this site today though!

Looks like a juvenile trunkfish, from Paul Humann fish ID pg 390. Nice capture, as those are never still and hard to shoot.

Nice catch, Brian! Looks like a smooth juvi trunkfish, could be wrong, my i.d. books are at my plave on Bonaire, so can't double check. Love the pic!

Could this be the golden variation of the smooth trunk fish. No spines above the eyes so not a honeycomb.I'm sitting her with Humann book and still I'm not sure.

Brian,

about how big was this fish?

Everything I have read about the golden smooth trunkfish says it occurs only in the Flower Garden Banks off Texas. This is an isolated population & the golden variation is thought to be the result of a genetic mutation. Since there are so many smooth trunkfish in Bonaire (and such a large gene pool), its unlikely that recessive genetic traits could prevail. But maybe...

It has the mouth of the smooth trunkfish. otherwise, I really don't know. Try researching on www.fishbase.org they have early life history pictures for most species.

Very young juvenile honeycomb cowfish - rare capture!

Yes, i think Bill & Donna are right - it is a juv. honeycomb cowfish. I was wondering why the super-orbital & anal spines were not present, because they seem to be exaggerated in later-stage juvenile cowfish. but then I found this photo http://volusia.org/fisheries/spplist.htm (scroll down the pic is the link that is second from bottom in right column). This is a scrawled cowfish, which is not reported to occur in Bonaire, but it is very similar to your pic. I don't think it is a puffer, because the mouth isn't right, & the eyes are not very similar to the smooth trunkfish. So by process of elimination, I'd call it a honeycomb as well. I guess the spines grow in as they reach an a later juvenile stage.

Having seen one only slightly larger, but displaying the aforementioned spines, I'd agree with the honeycomb cowfish ID.
If I weren't at work, I'd post a picture.

Thanks we have never seen one like this before, Chris (one of the Instructors at Habitat)also saw it and said it was new to him as well. It was just over 1/3 inch in size.

We also saw our first ever Grey Angelfish in Bonaire at Monti's Divi this morning.

Just checked ReefNet's "Fishes of the Caribbean and Adjacent Waters" software and they have an almost identical photo of the juvenile honeycomb cowfish, perhaps a little larger and with the spots and "horns" a little more defined.