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Kūmū Ember

Ocean Aquaria

A glimpse inside

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Kūmū Ember

Kūmū — Hawaiʻi's endemic red squirrelfish, a live coal of the reef

A kūmū hangs in the water beside the camera, scarlet as a live coal, its huge round eye reflecting the sunbeams overhead. The spiny fins along its back stand up like the crest of a tiny dragon of the reef.

Squirrelfish hide by day and glow through the dusk, their great eyes built for the dark. Old Hawaiian stories say the kūmū's red guided lost fishermen home — a small fire that never goes out.