Spadefish at Molas Ship Wreck
Huge spadefish, also called batfish, are seen almost every dive site in Siladen, Bunaken and Manado Tua dive sites. In Fukui and Tanjung Kopi massive schools of spadefish are gathered together like a one organism, moving around as one. Manado Ship Wreck also has many big white batfish guarding the sunken ship. And in the walls spadefish are often seen alone or in a group of two or three.
Yesterday we saw couple of big batfish in Bunaken Mandolin while doing a deep dive in Advanced Open Water Course. In the depth of 28 meters these beautiful fish were sharing the reef with pump head parrot fish and thousands of butterflyfish. But it is not uncommon to see spadefish in the deep depth because spadefish is known to swim to depths of 500 meters! The morning was beautiful and the we had absolutely wonderrful visibility. Some of the divers saw an eagle ray as well, our group missed that one.
Juvenile batfish are amazingly beautiful little fish which have excellent camouflage. They can mimic leaves, crinoids and even flatworms. Juveniles float on the surface with the current. They settle in lagoons or along beaches on sand in small schools.
Juveniles are seen here mainly in the mainland dive sites such as Kampung Baru, but sometimes a lucky diver can spot them in the reefs like in dive site Alung Banua Lagoon. Juvenile batfish are very common in the aquarium trade because their beauty, but this fish grows to an adult very fast. The adult batfish can grow to 50 cm length!
If you google spadefish and look at the pictures, it’s sad to realize that almost every other picture is some sport fisher taking the picture with his or her catch. Spadefish are popular catch to many sport fishers because it fights back when you try to pull it to the boat. It’s the challenge.
But here in Bunaken National Marine Park spadefish can be in peace because sport fishing and catching fish for aquariums are not allowed in the marine park.
Source of information Helmut Debelius: Asia Pacific Reef Guide and Wikipedia.
Picture: Heini H.
Heini
