If you’ve seen any of my latest posts, then you know that I was lucky enough to visit the Maldives recently.  As you can imagine, I saw some amazing sights, and I’ve been enjoying the chance to share a few of the animals and habitats that I managed to photograph.  Here are a few favorite fish for photographers.

My first is a fish that most people are familiar with, the easily recognized and unique-looking Longnose Hawkfish (Oxycirrhites typus). Like the rest of the Hawkfish clan, this species is quite easy to approach, so once spotted, they’re much loved by photographers.  This one was at around 25 meters in a growth of what I think is Cluster Whip Coral.

A slightly less well-known fish (to me at least) is Cirrhitichthys oxycephalus, the Spotted Hawkfish.  At first I thought this fish was C. falco, but the guidebook I use shows the latter having two clear lines radiating down from the eye and one central one, on the snout.

And finally, my favorite of this trio, the Monocle Hawkfish (Paracirrhites arcuatus).  My guidebook suggests this fish has a slightly more restricted range than the first two, being found only from Sri Lanka down to East Africa.  However, checking on fishbase.org and a few other sources confirms that P. arcuatus is widely distributed across the Indo Pacific.  I think I’d better get a newer ID book.  It’s a great fish though, and easily approached for a photograph!