Blackbar Soldierfish

Photo: terence zahner · CC BY-NC

Hundreds of soldierfish pack the interior chambers of Beauty Cave during daylight hours, their large reflective eyes adapted for the low-light environment inside. They hover in tight schools near the ceiling, retreating deeper into the cave when torchlight disturbs them only to drift forward again moments later. At dusk they pour out of the cave entrance as a dense red cloud to feed in the water column, making the transition dive from cave to open reef particularly dramatic.