For some reason, the little Harlequin Bass is one of my favorite reef fish. Maybe it is because of all its fancy decorations. This adult Harlequin Bass was about 4 inches long. Its yellow and white body was covered with a fancy pattern of vertical bars and tiny dots.

Notice how hard it is to see the eyes of this Harlequin Bass. Some scientists believe that the distance between a fish's eyes gives away the size of its mouth, giving a clue to other fish whether or not to be afraid of being eaten. Then eye camouflage could help fish catch their prey by not giving away a signal that their prey should be afraid. Whatever the reason, many reef fish have some sort of eye camouflage.

I often see Harlequin Bass swimming above the sand near small coralheads in the shallows. A type of Seabass, the Harlequin Bass is related to other larger Seabass such as Groupers.

Read all about the island of Bonaire on the ReefNews website, at
   http://www.reefnews.com/reefnews/oceangeo/bonaire/bonaire.html.

ReefNews photographer Jonathan Dowell took this photo using a Canon 10D digital camera with a Canon 28-105 mm zoom lens in an Ikelite housing with an Ikelite strobe.

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