3's not a crowd.

I've been shooting spawning Hamlets for a while now and it was always the case that if a third Hamlet showed up then the 3 would fight and not spawn as they like it just as a couple. Last evening I came across 2 Masked Hamlets and took a few shots of them spawning, then a third showed up, but I stayed with them and followed for a while, then all of a sudden all 3 spawned at the same time together! and I got the shot.

patrick ... looks even better off your lcd screen ..

you can kind of tell that the outside fish (the males) look a bt confused about who's getting the job done ... wonder if they were being homophobic and not wanting to touch each other !!

anyway ... apart from the fact it is an amazing behaviour shot with the three in and I am very jealous of it and to top it off they are masked hamlets possibly the coolest fish in the world.. this is an amaxing shot as you can see the masks on all three very distinctly .. very very cool

ps thanks for sharing where they are and great job on the piccy.

Holy cr*p that's cool! Great shot Patrick.

Cheers

James

Great catch Patrick! Really cool.

hat must be great shot,.........but where is it?

That is a pretty cool shot

What family are Hamlets? I haven't been to the Caribbean so the name Hamlet is new to me. A type of small angel or surgeon fish or something?

Mike, Hamlets are a type of Seabass.

Hamlets look like small groupers to me ... but I am pretty sure they are their own little family or genus or whatever you call it.

Fish Base calls them 'Hypoplectrus'

I know alex has told me this but I don't always retain the scientific stuff. I believe they can be found in most of the caribbean .. I know that here in Cayman where Patricks shot is from has a very good if not complete selection of all the Hamlets in very healthy groups.

Yes Giles, Hypoplectrus is the genus for hamlets.

Serranidae (seabass) is the family hamlets are in.

Groupers are in Seabass famlily as well so that's why hamlets remind you of groupers.

Where is it?

Matetes

I can't see it either. Although I saw it on the LCD screen after the dive. Very cool shot.

Biologically I don't think that it is very significant. Between us we must have watched several thousand spawning clasps on Cayman and one of us has seen this behaviour once. And it is not clear from the photo if there is actually spawning or just clasping going on here.

That doesn't stop it being a really interesting observation. And a great example of one of the real contributions that photographers can make to our understanding of species.

For those interested in these things you should check out Patrick's hamlet project page (his collection of different hamlet species spawning is pretty unique):

http://www.hamletproject.com/cgi-bin/hamlet/emAlbum.cgi

Alex

p.s. Giles - hamlets are as Caribbean as Red Stripe! Like tube blennies (hey, Luiz) they are just another reason why SE Asia is not the only place to go for unique critters!

Great, I would love to see that shot (can't see it either).

Now, do you guys know what would be really awesome and biologically significant? A photo of two different species (or color morphs, depending who you follow) spawning. Have you guys ever seen or photographed this?

Alex/Patrick where(location on reef) and when (time of day/night, time of year) do you find hamlets spawning.

Hey William, I know the question wasn't directed to me, but I think I can answer that. No secret on location, they usually spawn close to the same places where they hang out. But the timing is critical, they only spawn at dusk, starting about half an hour before sunset. They spawn year round, with no peaks in activity related to lunar cycle or season.

Thanks Luiz. Your answers are good enough for me..

Picture ?????