Resting on the sandy slopes, Lizard fish watch the world go by in Bunaken. Their sand coloured patterning camouflages them perfectly into the background. Sometimes they bury themselves under sand or mud to hide even more. When small fish or invertebrates swim by and come too close they make a surprise attack.

Lizard fish are generally quite small but can grow up to about 50 cm in length. The biggest ones we have seen in Bunaken National Park have been 5-20 cm long. They can be found at all depths on the wall but they like the shallower sloping reef and the sandy patches near the eel grass. This means that you can see them also while snorkeling.

They have a scary looking grin with lots of little needle like teeth interlocking together but will get scared and hide if you get too close. Like scorpion fish they can be tricky to spot but once you have seen them once you will see them everywhere. They are very good fish to practice photography skills with as you need to be good with your buoyancy and move towards them slowly in order to get a good shot. If you get a torch angled right their patterns come out really clear and stand out from the coral reef. 

This past week in Bunaken has been a busy one! Two Fish Divers participated in the Guinness World Record Dive in Manado sending divers from both Lembeh and Bunaken. Guests Ben and Amadin went along with their guide Kres and were part of 3,131 divers diving at the same time. The dive was successful in beating the Guinness world record! It was a very well organised event and a lot of fun for everyone involved.

A big congratulations goes to Heidi for completing her PADI Divemaster Internship the last 4 weeks as well as finishing your PADI Enriched Air Diving Course. Well done Sindre, Alwin and Andreas in completing your Open Water Course and also to Maud and Irwan for completing your EFR and Rescue courses. We hope to see you all back on Bunaken again.

Some very cool things we have been seeing lately include Sharks, spotted eagle rays, ornate ghost pipe fish, We have some resident baby sharks at one of our dive sites at the moment and are hoping they stick around for a bit longer. Turtles are always getting the centre of attention especially now we have many snorkelers but it is always exciting to see them. We also have been finding more Pontohi pygmy seahorses (Hippocampus pontohi) and frog fish at different dive sites which gives us more chances to see them.

There are so many different fish, crabs and corals to see you will always find something you have never seen before that you might need to find it in our Fish ID books. That is if your dive guide doesn’t already know the name of it. Have a look for the camouflaged elongated shape of the lizard fish hiding on the sandy patches of reef on your next dive at Two Fish Divers Bunaken.