This common Hawaiian reef fish is very colorful to watch but should not be touched! It is called a surgeonfish because it has a sharp spine at the base of the tail that can cut you like the scalpel of a surgeon!

This foot long fish is often seen in large schools eating algae off of the reef or sand but they also swim around just by themselves. When they are in the larger schools they will change colors quickly from black to grey and people often think they are different sexes. Like many other species of reef fish they can change color within a split second!

What really confuses divers is that the baby orange band surgeonfish are bright yellow. They resemble a yellow tang and are often confused. The yellow tang has a bright white spine at the base of the tail the young surgeonfish lacks. When the orange band surgeonfish grows it turns from yellow to grey and white and the orange band becomes brightly colored.

This common reef fish often swims in large schools with other species of surgeonfish, tangs and parrotfish, as they all eat the same food.

They are very important for a healthy coral reef because the algae they eat competes for space on the reef with the corals. The fish that “graze” on the reef keep the algae down so the corals can grow!

The Hawaiian name na‘ena‘e refers to several types of native plant species on land. Often in the Hawaiian language a marine life species will have the same name as a plant species because the Hawaiians understood the relationship between the mountain and the sea and the cycle of rain water that feeds the plants and then runs off out onto the reef to nourish the corals and marine life.

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Terry Lilley is a marine biologist based in Hanalei. Follow him at underwater2web.com and www.gofundme.com/5urrm4zw.