Wierd Fishes Part I

A pair of mandarinfish swim close together prior to spawning. Mandarinfish are reef-dwellers native to the Pacific Ocean. Fish can be masters of animal camouflage.

 

This harlequin ghost pipefish has evolved to look like the coral that it lives around.

These white-eyed moray eels can grow to 4 or 5 feet long. These eels have sharp teeth in their powerful jaws. There are about 700 kinds of eels. 

A barracuda is scary because it has large jaws and very sharp teeth. It eats lots of other fish in the sea. If a barracuda feels threatened, it will even attack a person.

Batfish use their strong pectoral fins, shaped like the hind legs of a frog, to "walk" across the sea floor in search of prey.

There are over 331 known species of cardinalfish, including this Banggai cardinalfish.

There are around 360 species of shark, including this great white. Between 75 and 100 shark attacks are reported each year, but less than 20 result in human death

Clownfish, damselfish, or the "Nemo" fish, live among sea anemones, which the fish use as a place to hide from predators.

Deep-sea anglerfish, which are usually three to four inches in length, sometimes eat fish twice their own size. Only the female of the deep-sea anglerfish has the characteristic "fishing pole." Despite its name, this next fish has no relation to cattle.

 

Trunkfish, also known as boxfish or cowfish, are so named because the head and most of the body of the adult are enclosed in a boxlike structure of bone. 

 

Flouders, like this leopard flounder, live at the bottom of the sea. Lying flat on its side, a flounder can change its color and pattern to match the sea floor.  

 

The leafy sea dragons name comes from its leaf-like body, which can resemble seaweed. Sea dragons are closely related to sea horses.  

The pacific hagfish is jawless, but has plates on its mouth and tongue that rasp into the body of its prey. When threatened, it secretes defensive slime.

 

 

Stingrays, like this blue-spotted species, are considered by most experts to be docile creatures, only attacking in self-defense. A stingray's venom is not necessarily fatal, but it hurts a lot.

When a globefish, or pufferfish, is disturbed, it engulfs air or water into a special, inflatable part of the stomach. The balloon shape of a swollen fish apparently discourages attackers