Barracuda

A Barracuda feeding in the Florida Keys

Large prominent teeth tend to give this fish a bad reputation. However while extremely curious, very rarely will these picevoires take a nip at human. We often fed large cudas in Pennekamp Park who would then follow us through out the dive like one of the team.

While not a problem for humans, these predators are extremely effective hunters of fish. These scaled torpedoes will go from a standstill to slashing a fish in the blink of an eye. You can tell when a barracuda (known in scientific terms as Sphyraena) is readying for a strike as a coloration change precedes the attack. The faded dark areas will become much more pronounced just prior to the moving in on the prey. Feeding time is usually early morning or dusk as reef fish prepare to move off the reef into the sea grass beds to feed.

Text source: Wikipedia under Creative Commons license.

Photo credit: NOAA

© Copyright Vince Capone 2013