This Queen Angelfish almost got away. Queen Angelfish are incredibly beautiful and incredibly shy. They almost never hang around to get their picture taken. So I was pretty excited when I saw this Queen Angelfish out in the open. It was swimming toward me along the coral wall near the top of the dropoff along the cliff at the edge of the abyss west of San Salvador. It looked to me like this Queen Angelfish would swim between me and the wall, and all I would have to do was wait.

That is pretty much what happened. But just as I took this picture the Queen Angelfish turned its head away from me, so some of its face is hidden in this picture. By the time the film advanced and the strobe re-charged, the Queen Angelfish was gone and I couldn't try again. Maybe I'll have better luck next time.

This picture does show many of the beautiful details of the Queen Angelfish. Each of its scales is blue with a yellow outline. It has large fins on its sides, called pectoral fins. Like other Angelfish, this Queen Angelfish swims by paddling with these pectoral fins.

Much of the coral on the wall in the background is dead. The wall is covered by algae and sponges, with just a few living corals. You can see a large brown sponge just behind the Angelfish's tail.

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