About lost remora

Once upon a time there were sea. The sea was incredible huge and full of various creatures. Some were small while the others giant. To the big ones belong whales, turtles, manta rays, rays and sharks. Each of them have a shoal of other fishes around them which look after their hostile. One of them was remoras. These fish could stuck to the body of their master by a sucking disk which is developed by changing of spinal fin. Their duty is to keep their master clean and he gives them protection and food. But sometimes something terrible happened, the remora get lost from it´s protector.
I keep a track of bubbles from my regulator up tp the surface. They blow up quickly and they vanish when they reach the sea level. I stop next to the anemone with clownfish, they amuse me always. Clownfish swim among tentacles of anemone and sometimes they attack. I won´t tease them. So I signalize that I want to swim to the other side. When I am above sandy bottom I immediately search for small organism – I search for invisible flounders, crabs and seamoths. Blue triggerfish come here often searching food, I call him Odonus. He likes molluscks and echinodermats, which he blow from bottom by strong flow of water. Sea urchin turns upside down and triggerfish could eat it safely. There are lots of Red sea sanddivers (Trichonotus nikii) these days. They hover about half meter above the bottom and when I come closer they immediately disapear in sand. It is really superb. I check my group. Everything is OK, but one of the divers is somehow wincing. What´s up? Now I see then reason, a little remora is constantly clinging to her. It tries to suck to her leg, because she has a short diving suit her naked leg attract the remora very much. I tried to calm her down and show her that the remora is not dangerous. What is he doing here anyway? Maybe he got lost. Somewhere near here must be someone whose this remora belongs to. It could be a turtle who often goes here. I look around but nobody is here. Meanwhile remora change his attraction to another victim. Remora swims from one to another diver and tries to stick somewhere- but everyone is driving him away. Maybe he really don´t have any hostile. Poor thing is he. But e find someone certainly soon. He also swim to me and sticks to my hand. It is a weird feeling. Not because he bites pieces of my skin and that it hurts a little but mostly because he join us. ,, What do you want little one? Want you to be with us?“ We swim together for a couple minutes when he decides to make a new round among us. He sticks to one divers fin, to anothers belly, or hand and finally he takes a ride on our tanks. He changes us every minutes, maybe he tniks that we are to slow. We let him be, he join us for the whole dive. ,, Sorry dear, we are finishing and you can´t go with us up.“ I really have a feeling that he don´t want to stay alone, but there is nothing to do with it. He understand that there will be no more fun with us and he join another group of divers.
In the afternoon we go again to the water. Immediately we descent I see him how he tries to assist to one diving instructor. But he is not a good helper. He bother the begginers while they try to make all exercises right. On sand between coral towers a crocodile fish is lying. On red sponge is a couple of nudibranchs chromodoris quadricolor. The remora notices us and join us. It seems that we are more pleasant to him than the instructor with his students. Now everybody wants to have remora near them. Everyone is attracting him and everyone is desiring that remora will stick to them. Remora don´t know where to go first, everyone is paying attention to him, Some (even me) are taking diving suit a little bit down so remora could stick to naked skin. He circles shilly-shally around whole grouú and starts to stick to our hands, necks and cheeks. Even though this area is very sensitive and sticking leaves behind red spots nobody cares. Now remora notices an ideal landing area on one diver and swim directly to him. He makes a circle abround David and sticks to his forehead. I take my camera and make a photo of this curious couple.
Every other dive we expect and wait if remora would join us. Because this playful animal took our hearts. And he really was here for few days. But finally a turtle arrived to the reef and remora find his new friend. He sticks to her carapax and start to clen her. It seems like they have a nice talk to each other about thu rules of their friendship. Everytime the turtle rises from bottom he follow her- perfect co-ordination. We realize taht this is the last time we see him. ,,Be a good remora and if you get lost again you know where we are diving. Have a great time!Ҭ