Wierd Fishes Part II

This two-spot Goby makes up just one of the more than 2,000 Gobiidae family.

 

Jawfish orally brood their eggs to protect from their offspring from predators.

Scorpion fish, like this leaf scorpion fish, are named for the venomous spines on their fins. In most species, the skin is brightly colored to blend in with the ocean bottom, where they dwell.

A parrotfish is familiar to many divers who can immediately identify it by the characteristic chomping noise it makes as it eats away at the coral.

The stonefish is a drab brown color and has rough, warty skin to help it blend in with the mud flats and coral reefs where it is found. The back is covered by a series of venomous spines, which can cause paralysis.

Like sharks, skates have skeletons of cartilage rather than bone. This big skate is found off the Pacific coast of North America and can reach a length of about 8 feet.

Lionfish or turkeyfish are a venomous species known their long, striped spines.

This warty frogfish stalks its prey - small sharks, squid and turtles - by crawling on its arm-like fins. It also occasionally catches a diving bird that comes too close underwater.

The Atlantic tarpon is a powerful fighter, and often makes tremendous leaps to free itself when hooked. Atlantic tarpons grow up to 8 feet in length and weigh up to 300 pounds.

If the male of a school of the anthias fish disappears, the largest female will undergo hormonal changes in order to become the ruling male.

Groupers are distinguished by their numerous dorsal spines. Most groupers are two to three feet long.

Ths Sloane's viperfish (Chauliodus sloani) is a deep sea fish that has photophores, or light organs, in its mouth and all along its body

Toadfish, like this Three-spined toadfish, have large, broad heads, and bodies that taper to a long, slender tail. Also, some species have spines that release a mild poison.
 

Snappers are usually two to three feet in length and are often brightly colored. They have deep bodies, flattened heads and large mouths with many teeth. They are predatory, feeding on other fish, crabs, squid and shrimp. Swim on over the final fish.

 

 

Butterflyfish and triggerfish are just two of the brightly-colored and incredible saltwater fish that exist.

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

 

 

 

 

Sea Creatures Part III

Soft corals, like this orange clump coral (Tubastrea aurea), have internal fleshy skeletons.

When held to the ear, a conch shell acts as an amplifier for some barely inaudible noises. 

This giant Pacific octopus (Octopus dofleini) has one or two rows of sensitive suckers on each arm, with which the octopus distinguishes different textures and tastes.


Do you know which is the deadliest of all octopuses? 

When the tiny blue-ringed octopus is threatened, its faint blue rings become bright and vivid. This animal has some of the deadliest venom on Earth. 


You may eat them, but do you know what a scallop looks like?
 

A scallop has one large, round muscle that opens and closes its shell. This muscle is the part that's eaten.

A California spiny lobster can live for more than 50 years. 

 

 

Do you know which animal is sometimes referred to as "sea pork"?

 

Sea squirts, like this goldmouth sea squirt, feed on plankton, which they filter out of the water with their pharynges. 

 

 

Many sea snails, like this flamingo tongue snail (Cyphoma gibbosum), lay their eggs on the floors of the tropical oceans where they live. 

 

 

Most sea stars have five arms each. But some have as many as 40 arms. The number of arms sea stars have often is a multiple of five

Sea Creatures Part II

An Antarctic giant isopod (Glyptonotus antarcticus) and a few sea stars (Odontaster validus) are frozen in newly formed anchor ice.

This bigfin reef squid (Sepioteuthis lessoniana) is torpedo-shaped and more closely resembles cuttlefish than squid

Long-armed starfish (Luidia sarsi) has recently metamorphosed after casting off its larval body.

Octopuses have poisonous saliva and the bite of some species can be fatal to humans.

Fire coral (Millepora alcicornis), a hydrocoral, stings fiercely upon contact

A candy-cane sea star (Fromis monilis) is within arm's reach of a feather star (Comanthina nobilis).

Here's a close-up of a fierce sand crab. Crabs have 10 legs, and in some species, the front two are modified to form large, pincherlike claws. Which animal do they call the "hedgehog of the sea"?

The iridescent red-and-blue spines of the globe urchin give it a formal look, which lends to its other nickname, the "tuxedo urchin."

This sea cucumber has its feeding tentacles extended. After sea cucumbers catch food this way, they stuff their tentacles into their mouths

A strawberry anemone (Tealia lofotensis) captures drift kelp with its tentacles. The animal feeds on kelp and encrusting animals.

Sea Creatures Part I

Scallops, like this flame scallop (Lima scabra), live in colonies on the ocean floor, some in shallow coastal areas and others at great depths. Do you know which mollusk is also known as a "devilfish"? 

A reef octopus (Octopus briareus) is hunting at night in the Caribbean, while displaying its camouflage abilities.

The spotted anemone crab or porcelain crab (Neopetrolisthes maculatus) is hanging out on a sea anemone. 

Two bat stars (Asterina miniata) are competing. Despite the name, "starfish" aren't fish; they're echinoderms, spiny-skinned marine animals. See a crustacean that's a main ingredient in many Cajun dishes.

When alarmed, the crawfish rears up and raises its claws threateningly. The fan-shaped tail then propels the crawfish backward, flinging mud at the enemy. Find an animal that has stinging parts that paralyze or kill most fish and other prey on contact. 

The Portuguese man-of-war, also known as the bluebottle, is commonly thought of as a jellyfish but is actually a siphonophore -- a colony of specialized working parts.

This sea cucumber has a mouth at one end, leathery purple and white skin and suckers on the end of its red tubed feet.

A Pacific white-striped cleaner shrimp (Lysmata Amboinensis) thrives as a swimming decapod crustacean that cleans other organisms, particularly larger fish, of parasites.

A tiny brittle starfish (Ophiothrix sp) seeks protection on a much larger blue starfish (Linckia laevigata). Can you imagine getting stuck in frozen water?