Despite their colour these wire corals are members of the black coral family. We continue with the wall on our left until we come to a canyon with a sand base. Up through the canyon takes us back onto the flat top of The Cliffs, where we finish the dive. There are more fish on the plateau than on the wall, especially rockhinds, chromis, blue tangs, moray eels, and hamlets. A white spotted filefish, hovering near a gorgonian, catches our attention because it has a piece of sea fan protruding, as if stuck in its teeth.
Dental floss is hard to come by under water.
Our orthodontally-impaired filefish decides to swim over a rock where it meets another white spotted filefish and promptly turns from blotchy brown and orange to spotted black and white. Obviously there is room for only one blotchy liveried filefish round here. Colour and patterns are an important part of the communication process between fish, though little is understood about the process. The filefish occupies our remaining time before we make a slow ascent back to the boat. Thanks to Dive Statia.