In Kapalua Bay, there are numerous loose rocks lying in the sandy sections. In pursuit of a tako (octopus) some time back, I discovered that most of these rocks serve as a hiding place for brittle stars; a real treat for any of the fish watching on and especially for some unusually brave puffer fish in the area. It may be that swimmers feed these fish on a somewhat regular basis as they are much more "friendly" to a swimmer than is typical in my experience. I don't plan to make a habit of giving the fish an easy shot at the brittle stars but they certainly exploited my intervention and disruption of their normal routine!!

With some family and friends visiting recently, I decided to take some pics of this. I would go down and over turn a rock, catch the brittle stars and hand them out to others as well as feed them myself to the fish watching on:

The puffer above followed me closely the whole time. At one point, I upturned a rock and grabbed one of two brittle stars exposed. As I went in with my hand to grab the second one, the puffer as well went for it. I got there first and the puffer's attack caught my finger instead of the brittle star! I had been hearing the puffer crunch the brittle stars and having it bite down on my finger was not a pleasant experience. It felt like its teeth stopped on the bone but I didn't explore the depth of the cut to actually find out. So far, the wound is healing nicely but I may have a heart shaped scar to remind me of the puffer's kiss: