Click (twice) for detail!And since Taxonomy is so cool.
Check out the black-and-white Fish in the center.
Normally, these guys look completely different.
This is the coloration they take on whenever they approach the food and are thus in close proximity to the Bulls - so may this be some warning signal, as in the black-and-white of the Sea Kraits and juvenile Sweetlips?
Who knows - but I find it a charming hypothesis!
Anyway, this is an uncommon visitor to Shark Reef.
I've noticed that they turn up whenever we get cold upwellings, which leads me to believe that they may be inhabiting the deeper reaches of Beqa Passage below the thermocline. Interestingly, both in New Caledonia and Fiji they are known to aggregate for spawning together with other species of groupers, in particular Epinephelus polyphekadion and E. fuscoguttatus.
As I said, this is not how they normally look.
However, the picture does feature a diagnostic detail by which you could identify it. I was uncertain for quite a while but have recently been able to capture images of one and the same individual in both color phases and am certain of the correct ID.
First one who names it correctly wins one week of diving!
Latin name please - and on this blog not Facebook!
One answer per person every 24h.
Here's a second image.
Maybe it helps - then again, maybe not! :)
Check out the black-and-white Fish in the center.
Normally, these guys look completely different.
This is the coloration they take on whenever they approach the food and are thus in close proximity to the Bulls - so may this be some warning signal, as in the black-and-white of the Sea Kraits and juvenile Sweetlips?
Who knows - but I find it a charming hypothesis!
Anyway, this is an uncommon visitor to Shark Reef.
I've noticed that they turn up whenever we get cold upwellings, which leads me to believe that they may be inhabiting the deeper reaches of Beqa Passage below the thermocline. Interestingly, both in New Caledonia and Fiji they are known to aggregate for spawning together with other species of groupers, in particular Epinephelus polyphekadion and E. fuscoguttatus.
As I said, this is not how they normally look.
However, the picture does feature a diagnostic detail by which you could identify it. I was uncertain for quite a while but have recently been able to capture images of one and the same individual in both color phases and am certain of the correct ID.
First one who names it correctly wins one week of diving!
Latin name please - and on this blog not Facebook!
One answer per person every 24h.
Here's a second image.
Maybe it helps - then again, maybe not! :)
19 comments:
Nope!
We got plenty of those but they are way bigger - compare the size to the Surgeonfishes (Acanthurus xanthopterus), this guy is not very big.
And before you ask, you get one more answer then let's do like we did last time, one answer per 24h...
I'll update the post accordingly.
Looks like a hungry Coral Trout....You want a Latin name on that, or am I allowed to be vague.....
Go on, I'll have a guess.....Plectropomus maculatus.
I though it was a Malabar Cod, too, before I saw the guess above....
Alas not!
You got to look carefully - there's one detail that tells you right away that it cannot be either!
Also, don't forget that this color phase is highly unusual, you got to look at the body shape not the coloration.
Then again... :)
Ophiodon elongatus???
From Wikipedia: native to the North American west coast from Shumagin Islands in the Gulf of Alaska to Baja California, Mexico.
This would be Fiji - far, faaaar away from the US west coast! :)
Latimeria chalumnae?
Nope!
You must be more rigorous Young Bull - there's one detail you keep overlooking whereby it just cannot be coeruleopunctatus!
Anyway, I'm posting a second image that should greatly facilitate the task - or not! :)
Epinephelus cyanopodus?
Epinephelus magniscuttis
Sebastes sp. ?
Mycteroperca bonaci?
Centropristis striata ?
Centropristis striata ?
Epinephelus polyphekadion?
Cephalopholis miniata ?
Cephalopholis miniata ?
Epinephelus areolatus
Heureka we got ourselves a winner!
Details here
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