I want to enter this in my camera clubs next competition

i vote for the cowfish! good expression:)

can you tone down the background a little or is that not allowed?

What do you mean by tone down? Make the background a little darker? I'm pretty sure it would allowed if I knew what to do.

My vote is for the anemone fish, like it - just nice they way it is !

Regarding the cow fish - nice shot head on, after reading Mikes comment, I just did a very slight edge darkening by adding a vignette, just subtle......

I vote for the Anemone Fish, with the little Trunk Fish a close second.

What tips the balance for me? Color and composition. The trunk fish image is cool, but aside from the fish, the background is a bit bland. Every element of the Anemone Fish shot works for me ... nice composition, focus, DOF, great colors, interesting but not distracting background ...

... ok ... wasn't as close as I thought ... I vote for the Anemone Fish with the Trunk Fish a distant second ...

Well, I can enter 4. I did this to the background of the trunk fish. I'm not sure if I could still enter it in Nature. I'll check with some other members. But if I can't, I thought I'd enter it in pictorial.

I liked them all

Oops. I deleted my links before I logged into WP. I thought this thread was dead.

Thanks for the compliment.

Anyway, here are my final picks for Nature: 3 uw and 1 topside for the landlubber judge.

I decided to enter the trunk fish in pictorial because I like the radial filter.