Fish ID

Not sure what it is, at a guess a garnard of some sort?

Had a very hard shell over its head and a long snout

 

 


Buz's picture

Posts: 1555

Date Joined: 28/08/07

Dragonet of some sort?

Tue, 2013-06-11 08:39

Dragonet of some sort?

Glenn Moore's picture

Posts: 228

Date Joined: 13/02/12

Slender Seamoth

Tue, 2013-06-11 09:23

This is a Slender Seamoth Pegasus volitans.  I'm guessing probably caught in the Swan, or perhaps Cockburn Sound?  These are frequently caught while dragging for prawns.

____________________________________________________________________________

Glenn Moore

Curator of Fishes

Western Australian Museum

twitter @WestOzFish

 

 

Bodie's picture

Posts: 3758

Date Joined: 05/11/07

yep from the swan, and not

Tue, 2013-06-11 09:31

yep from the swan, and not from dragging either :)

Posts: 2319

Date Joined: 03/05/06

yep

Tue, 2013-06-11 09:59

Also known as Longtail Seamoth, Slender Seamoth are light brown or olive to dark brown with a paler belly.  They have a flattened head and tapered body covered by a bony skeleton of rigid plates.  The tail is enclosed in bony rings.  The white tipped snout is long and made up of modified nose bones and there is a small mouth under the snout.  They have large pectoral fins which are spread out like wings.  Slender Seamoths are adapted to walk over the bottom using their pelvic fins. 

Juvenile Slender Seamoths are sometimes black.

They grow to 18cms in length.

Slender Seamoths have commercial value for use in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

In Australia Slender Seamoths are found from Fremantle Western Australia around the tropical north, then south to Sydney New South Wales, inhabiting sand or silt bottoms of bays and estuaries.