Essay of My Wonderful Life, Tropical Fishes

In August, every day it has been very warm. The temperature is around 36 degrees, so we can't stand without air conditioner. In the Koushien Stadium, the high school baseball match is going on. And very surprisingly the Prime Minister Mr. Junichiro Koizumi suddenly dissolves the House of Representative on the 8th of August. The General Election will be held on the 11th of September. The reason of the dissolve was whether we should make the privatization of the Post Office.

By the way, so far I have taken up the photographs of the tropical fishes as the cover photo of my website in August. I would like to show these essays here.

1. The Tioman Island

The first experience for me to visit the islands of tropical area was the family trip to the Tioman Island, which was located in the east coast of the Peninsula of Malaysia. This island is famous for the cinema, The South Pacific.
The Tioman Island is surrounded by the small coral islands. We hired a fisherman's boat and we went one of these islands. The beach was covered by pure white sand. There are coconuts trees in the center of the island. The sky was blue. The sea was green-blue. Wearing shocked, I went into the sea and I was so impressed by the beauty in the sea. There are corals and colorful tropical fishes I wanted to look into the sea as longer as possible. After I was boring in watching into the sea, I made my head lift up and looked around> I wanted to make sure whether my family was all right. My wife, wearing swimming suits, was standing in the sea water under the sun-light from the blue sky. I thought as if she was the model of the Shiseido poster. My daughter and son were playing in the sea for catching tropical fishes.
When the lunchtime came, we enjoyed in taking bonitos, which fishermen caught. We grilled the bonitos by using dropped leaves of coconut trees. The taste was very wonderful. We couldn't forget about it.
　　 (This photograph is not the Tioman Island, but the Ornamental Fish Fair.)

2. Butterflyfish

As it is in the midst of summer, everyday it is warm. The temperature is around 36 degrees of Celsius. As I am in the office whole day with air-con, I don't feel warmth. In the weekends, my house is air-conditioned. However once I am going out, I am struck by the heat. The sun is shining. At first I planned to go to the Mizumoto Park for seeing lotus, but I gave up. So I changed my destination to an aquarium in the Sunshine building, which is the famous high scraper at Ikebukuro.

It is good for us to go to an aquarium in summer, because we feel not only happily but also cool to see tropical fishes. They are so colorful and have various shapes, which attract us. Their background is colorful coral. After I kept watching these Coral Sea, I started to take video. Then one of a fish was approaching to my digital camera and observed what it was. It is needless to say that we watch tropical fishes in the aquarium. At the same time, I found that the tropical fishes in the aquarium watch us!

Quite a long time ago, I had a colorful carp in my house. This carp was approaching to me whenever he notices that I was going to his aquarium. I said that this was because he distinguishes my face, who gave him some bites. However my family was so skeptical. Now I could prove that what I said was right.

This photo is the tropical fish, named as a longbeaked butterflyfish.

3. Clownfish

As this is the summer season, I will continue the tropical fish series for a while. The second fish is the clownfish or the anemonefish, which is famous as Finding Nemo of Disney's movie.

The clownfish usually live together with the coral. Other fish will be damaged by the toxin of the coral. But only the clownfish will not be damaged, because it has some immune system. And that the clownfish had not this immune system in nature. It will get it after it's born. Gradually it gets used this toxin through daily touch to the coral. This special immune system makes the clownfish escaping from the big fish. So coral is a strong measure for the clownfish to survive in the sea. However the clownfish might be troublesome for the coral.

The clownfish can convert its sex. There are a few clown fishes in a coral. The biggest one will become female and the second biggest one will become male. If the biggest one would die, the second one will become female and the third biggest one will become male. However it sometimes happens that a biggest one will come from the neighbor coral.

(This photograph is in the Sunshine aquarium. )

4. Jellyfish

This is a jellyfish, named as Flower-hat jellyfish. It looks like a neon-sign board. If we would make the background black and put one a strong light, it will look more colorful. However we should be careful to find such a colorful jellyfish, because it surely has a toxin. Luckily I haven't seen this type of jellyfish in the sea before.
When I was a university student, I went for swimming in seashore. However both of us were struck by the jellyfish on our arms or legs. The damaged parts swelled. We felt so painful. We were forced to go and see the doctor. Since then I don't like any kinds of jellyfish.

5. Puffer

This puffer is very funny. First of all, it has a small puffing mouth with square face. This outlook makes me very happily. Secondly it has two rotating fins on its back and belly sides. Especially the rotating fins make me remind of a hovering helicopter. However this puffer is very dangerous, in spite of its outlook. If this fish would be too much stressed, it would create some toxin from its skin. This toxin would make other fishes die on the spot. So this fish is a killer with lovely looks!

6. Square-spot fairy basslet

I was interested in this tropical fish, because it has pinkish color with square-spot. In Japanese, it is said as violet-like long nose fish. The scientific name is Pseudanthias pleurotaenia. The English name is Square-spot fairy basslet. As the English name indicates, the square-spot of their side is very outstanding. The fish with the square-spot is a male. The female fish is orange colored. So it's easy for us to identify. Normally they make a one group of one male fish and several female fish. They easily change their sexes. The biggest fish among them will become a male fish. We can find these fishes usually a slope from 20 to 70 meters depth in the West Pacific Ocean or the Indian Ocean.

(August 11, 2005)