Hikkaduwa Marine Life: What You Will Actually See

Green Sea Turtle Common

Chelonia mydas

The great grazing turtle of the tropics, the only sea turtle that turns vegetarian as an adult.

Where: The shallow reef and the beach shallows, where turtles come in to be fed by hotels. Best: November to April. Turtles here are habituated and hand fed, which is why they are so easy to see. That is a fed animal, not a wild encounter, and it is worth knowing the difference.

Hawksbill Turtle Occasional Critically Endangered

Eretmochelys imbricata

The reef's sponge specialist, its beautiful shell also the reason it was hunted to the edge.

Where: Coral on the fringing reef. Best: November to April.

Olive Ridley Turtle Occasional Vulnerable

Lepidochelys olivacea

The smallest and most numerous sea turtle, famous elsewhere for mass nestings of thousands at once.

Where: Offshore water and occasionally over the reef. Best: Year round.

Blue-green Chromis Common

Chromis viridis

A shimmer of living jewels above the coral, hundreds of tiny blue-green fish that vanish into the branches in a blink.

Where: Above coral heads on the fringing reef. Best: November to April.

Sergeant Major Common

Abudefduf vaigiensis

The busy, black-striped damselfish that snorkellers meet everywhere, mobbing the shallows in restless silver shoals.

Where: Reef flat in snorkelling depth. Best: November to April.

Blackspotted Puffer Regular

Arothron nigropunctatus

A comically dog-faced puffer, its colour ranging from grey to sunny yellow, carrying a potent toxin in its flesh.

Where: Reef flat and rubble. Best: November to April.

Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse Regular

Labroides dimidiatus

A tiny striped wrasse that runs the reef's health clinic, picking parasites from fish that queue up and even open their mouths for it.

Where: Cleaning stations on the larger coral heads. Best: November to April.

Bluestripe Snapper Regular

Lutjanus kasmira

A bright yellow snapper ruled with electric-blue lines, massing in dense, glowing schools around coral heads and wrecks.

Where: Shoals over the coral. Best: November to April.

Bullethead Parrotfish Regular

Chlorurus sordidus

A blunt-headed reef grazer that scrapes algae from coral with a beak of fused teeth and sleeps in a bubble of its own mucus.

Where: Grazing the reef flat, audible before it is visible. Best: November to April.

Indian Sailfin Tang Regular

Zebrasoma desjardinii

It raises a dorsal fin nearly as tall as its own body, and a startled one seems to double in size in front of you.

Where: Reef top and the boulder slopes. Best: November to April.

Maldives Anemonefish Regular

Amphiprion nigripes

A clownfish found only in Sri Lanka, the Maldives and the Lakshadweep, and nowhere else on earth.

Where: Anemones on the shallow reef inside the marine park. Best: November to April.

Moorish Idol Regular

Zanclus cornutus

An unmistakable disc of black, white and gold trailing a long ribbon fin, one of the most elegant fish on any reef.

Where: Fringing reef and rocky patches. Best: November to April.

Powder Blue Surgeonfish Regular

Acanthurus leucosternon

A stunning Andaman signature fish, powder blue with a yellow sail and a scalpel-sharp blade at the base of its tail.

Where: Grazing the shallow reef. Best: November to April.

Raccoon Butterflyfish Regular

Chaetodon lunula

A golden butterflyfish masked like a raccoon, drifting the reef in pairs by day and roaming at night.

Where: Coral heads and rubble on the reef flat. Best: November to April.

Yellowhead Butterflyfish Regular

Chaetodon xanthocephalus

An Indian Ocean butterflyfish that pairs for life, and you almost never see one without the other close by.

Where: Sheltered coral heads on the reef flat. Best: November to April.

Black Pyramid Butterflyfish Occasional

Hemitaurichthys zoster

They gather in the current in hundreds, and the white wedge on each flank turns the whole shoal into a drifting cloud of triangles.

Where: The outer edge of the reef where it drops away. Best: November to April.

Common Lionfish Occasional

Pterois volitans

A flamboyant reef hunter fanned out in maroon and white plumes, every graceful spine tipped with venom.

Where: Hanging under ledges and beside the rocks. Best: November to April.

Giant Moray Occasional

Gymnothorax javanicus

The largest moray on the reef, its gaping, fanged mouth a fearsome look that is really just how it breathes.

Where: Holes and crevices in the boulder sections. Best: November to April.

Oriental Sweetlips Occasional

Plectorhinchus vittatus

A handsome striped reef fish whose fussy juveniles wobble around in polka dots to mimic toxic flatworms.

Where: Under overhangs and ledges by day. Best: November to April.

Sebae Anemonefish Occasional

Amphiprion sebae

The big dark anemonefish of the northern Indian Ocean, with a yellow tail that gives it away from a distance.

Where: Sand and rubble margins at the reef edge. Best: November to April.

Titan Triggerfish Occasional

Balistoides viridescens

The reef's bad tempered bulldozer, a big triggerfish that will charge divers who stray over its nest.

Where: Sand patches at the reef edge, and aggressive when nesting. Best: November to April. Nesting triggerfish defend a cone of water above the nest and will charge. Swim sideways out of it rather than up.

Bluespotted Ribbontail Ray Occasional

Taeniura lymma

A small, brilliantly marked ray, olive gold studded with electric blue spots, tucked under coral ledges.

Where: Sand patches and under ledges at the reef edge. Best: November to April.

Blacktip Reef Shark Rare Vulnerable

Carcharhinus melanopterus

The neat little reef shark of the shallows, its black-tipped fins often cutting the surface over sun-lit sand flats.

Where: The outer reef edge rather than the shallow flat. Best: November to April.

Day Octopus Occasional

Octopus cyanea

A shape-shifting reef genius that can change colour and texture in a blink and pour its boneless body through a coin-sized gap.

Where: Holes and rubble on the reef flat, usually found by its midden of shells. Best: November to April.

Small Giant Clam Occasional

Tridacna maxima

The electric blue and green lips are not pigment for show. They are farming light, and the clam gets most of its food from algae living in its own flesh.

Where: Wedged into shallow coral within snorkelling reach. Best: November to April.

Staghorn Coral Regular

Acropora species

The fast-growing branching coral that builds the living thickets of the reef, nursery and shelter for a whole community.

Where: The shallow fringing reef inside the reef crest. Best: November to April. Hikkaduwa's coral has been heavily damaged by bleaching and by trampling.

Magnificent Sea Anemone Occasional

Heteractis magnifica

A great carpet of stinging tentacles that is home and fortress to the anemonefish, a partnership at the heart of the reef.

Where: Coral heads on the reef flat, hosting the anemonefish. Best: Year round.

Table Coral Occasional Near Threatened

Acropora hyacinthus

Grows outward faster than it grows up, spreading a flat platform that shades out every competitor beneath it.

Where: The shallow reef flat inside the marine park. Best: Year round.

Blue Sea Star Common

Linckia laevigata

An almost unreal cobalt blue starfish scattered across the shallows, able to regrow a whole body from a single lost arm.

Where: Reef flat and rubble in snorkelling depth. Best: Year round.

Long-spined Sea Urchin Common

Diadema setosum

A pincushion of needle-sharp black spines with a glowing orange ring, grazing algae and quietly shaping the reef.

Where: Crevices and rubble on the reef flat, in numbers. Best: Year round. Long black spines in shallow water that people stand on. Wear fins and stay horizontal.

Feather Star (Crinoid) Occasional

Comatulida species

A living bouquet of feathery arms that clings to high points on the reef by day and can crawl, or even swim, to a better spot.

Where: Clinging to coral heads and the reef edge in current. Best: November to April.

Horn-eyed Ghost Crab Common

Ocypode ceratophthalmus

The fastest crab on earth, clocked at over two metres a second, and it growls at intruders from inside its burrow.

Where: The beach itself after dark, running at the tideline. Best: Year round.

Christmas Tree Worm Common

Spirobranchus giganteus

Pairs of tiny spiral trees in every colour, studding the coral and vanishing in a flash when a shadow passes.

Where: Boulder coral on the reef flat. Best: November to April.