Rainbow runner

Photo: Rianne Laan · © all rights reserved

Iridescent blue and yellow with a distinctive horizontal stripe, rainbow runners form the largest schools at Leven Bank, sometimes numbering several thousand fish that coil around the seamount in tight cylinders visible from the surface. They feed on small fish and squid concentrated by the bank's upwelling. Their schooling behaviour creates one of the most visually spectacular backdrops in East African diving, and their numbers in turn attract the sharks and tuna that make this site exceptional.