I've looked for this fish in my identification book dozens of times. As it turns out, there appear to be local variants, and the one in the ID book just doesn't look much like this.

These little fish are called Indian or Cloudy Dascyllus (Dascyllus carneus). They are a small damselfish up to about 2.5 inches, but often as you can see a group of them range from every size. In Wakatobi, they were on pretty much every table coral like this, and would dart back into the coral as you approached. I managed to get this shot by slowly approaching the coral from below and coming up so I was eye level with the fish.

Technical Data: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, 1/40th sec at f/8. Image Stabilization on. ISO 400 (Auto). Ikelite Housing and Port with Ikelite 161 Strobe in TTL Mode. Auto-smartfix in Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 (mouseover for original).

Have I mentioned that I really want to get back in the water sometime soon?

- Bill