Monday, February 22, 2010

Front yard

Great when you can walk out the door and find things you've never heard of. Easy when you're a landlubber on the beach. The weather was calm enough on the rocks for a kelpy afternoon snorkel. Maybe my brother knows what kind of bucktooth vampire fish this is. Thought he looked a little too much like a scorpionfish to poke. Great camo.

Brighton Bight, NZ

1 comment:

  1. Hey! Actually yeah I think that I do. We have the same general type of fish in California. You are not too far off in calling it a scorpionfis, they can look pretty similar. I believe that it is the New Zealand Rockfish. They are unique to New Zealand and, like all rockfish, are pretty hard to spot. This one remains much smaller than the ones on the US west coast (about 2-7 inches at the largest/metric: 5-15 cm maybe). feel free to grab it, they're pretty slick really, but they do freek out more than your average fish. well thats my experience anyway.
    Researched it a bit, and if it is the rockfish it should have a few sharp teeth on its lower jaw. Even got a scientific name and classification: Anamalia, Chordata, Actinopterygii, Perciformes, Plesiopedae, Acanthoclinus-littoreus.
    Just my own speculation but being in the family "Plesiopedae" likely means it is realated to the mudskipper and other fish with foot-like pectorals. Both the rockfish and the scorpionfish spend most of their time at the bottom crawling more than actually swimming so it would make sense. : )

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