With their flattened shape, spadefish or chaetodipterus faber are very easy to identify. These fish move in the current and live most often in pairs but also in small schools (even sometimes in huge schools) from which they move away to isolate themselves in their search for food. They are mainly found on reefs up to 50 meters but much more often in the 30 meter zone to the surface.
They are fish with a massive body, with several dark vertical bands, compressed sideways. and almost discoidal shape. They are found in the Atlantic Ocean, mainly in the intertropical zone. Atlantic Spadefish is the largest of the family Ephippidae; It can reach 90 cm from the head to the end of the tail. It is common in Florida and the Bahamas. Its anal fin has 3 spines, its mouth is small and it feeds mainly on algae and small invertebrates (especially planktonic).
On August 2nd, 2014, I had the chance to cross the path of a pair of these "Atlantic Spadefish". It was a friend named Jim Humes, head of the "Sea Kat Divers" dive center in Bradenton Beach (West Florida), who introduced me to this wreck on which I have been diving a lot.
Once again this video shows another spadefish, filmed in June 2016 swimming around a small reef off Anna Maria Island (West Florida). Not that shy, this fish sometimes hovers in tight circles around divers.
Back on June 22, 2019 on the same wreck as the one where I went on August 2nd 2014, I found a beautiful batfish evolving in the middle of a baitfish school: it is a unique natural spectacle as only the scuba diving can offer.
