By Dave Sigworth, publicist of The Maritime Aquarium A few years
ago, we had the good fortune to be snorkeling over a shallow
reef in the Bahamas and came across a scrawled filefish. An
adult, about two feet long. As they tend to do, this filefish
hung vertically on the reef, pretending to be coral. It would
turn its eyes to look at us, then look away. Look at us, then
look away. You could almost hear it saying, “I’m not here. You
don’t see me.” We’ve been suckers for filefish ever since.
They’re just a fun-looking fish. Their bodies sport an irregular
splash of dark spots but also electric-blue dots and dashes, all
against a field of tan, gray or olive, which the fish can
lighten or darken as needed for camouflage. Indeed, some
snorkelers in our group probably did swim by that filefish
without seeing it. We also love their shape, particularly their
oversized broom tail and their long snout, which ends in a
toothy puckered mouth. And this is a pretty big fish for coral
reefs, growing up to 3 feet long. How ca