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Tonga – Fishes and crabs

September to November 2018

This website shows the fish and crabs I encountered during my stay in Tonga. I show them in a separate website, because the many pictures would inflate the Tonga travel report too much.

Ha’apai

Snorkeling around the northern tip of the island of Foa

A Cornetfish

A Blackspotted Puffer

Guineafowl Puffer

A Barber’s Anemonefish

Varied corals

Once the boat took us to an offshore reef between the islands of Foa and Ha’ano, where I discovered new fish and saw this species of squid for the first time while snorkeling.

A Southern Reef Squid

Lined surgeonfishes

An Abudjubbe Lippfish

A female of a Pacific Bird Wrasse, also called Green Bird Wrasse

A Cowtail Stingray

Harlequin Filefishes

Eua

I only saw this kind of crab on Fangatave Beach.

Vava’u Archipel

There was a varied underwater world to discover in the waters around the resort.

A Tiger Cowrie Snail

A Crocodile Needlefish

A group of Longfin Batfishes

The Titan Triggerfish is often found in tropical waters.

I haven’t seen this Granulated Sea Star anywhere else.

A Blue Devil Damselfish, also called Sapphire Devil

Lotuma Island

I reached the Lotuma island by kayak. At the back of this island there was a coral reef with interesting fish.

A Spotted Sandperch

A Spotfin Squirrelfish

A Slingjaw Wrasse

A Sabre Squirrelfish

A wrasse species I couldn’t identify.

A Wimpel Bannerfish

A yellow Blackspotted Pufferfish


The poisonous Red Lionfish

Reef crabs – When the crabs are exposed to strong light at night, they are like paralyzed and do not flee. This allows beautiful close-ups.

A hermit crab attacks a second that retreats into its shell.

But then the second crab decides to fight back. I don’t know how the fight ended.

Although many corals in Tonga are destroyed, often by storms, the variety of fish is remarkable. I didn’t see any big fish, because the coasts of Tonga are being fished.

 

This text is an automatic English translation from the German original by deepl.com