underwater – Page 3 – Everything about underwater and sky

Close-up : Spot eye flathead ワニゴチ

Inegocia ochiaii Imamura, 2010

They look the same, but they are different.

Wow! It is Crocodile Fish (Cymbacephalus beauforti (Knapp, 1973)) ! Is it right? The answer is correct, and incorrect. This is Spot eye flathead (Inegocia ociaii Imamura, 2010). It is called “Wani-Gochi” in Japan. “Wani” means Crocodile. So, it can say “correct”. These two flathead is a very similar shape. Crocodile Fish has lappets on each eyeball. And has eyebrow above each eye. Spot eye flathead has lappets also, however, it doesn’t have eyebrows on each eyeball. Spot eye flathead is found in coastal water more south of Sagami-Bay in the Pacific side, more south of Wakasa-Bay in Sea of Japan side. Crocodile Fish is the fish that is seen more south, like Kyushu or Okinawa. So, the answer is incorrect. Anyway, when I find out a Sopt eye falthead, I’m fun. I can feel tropical even in the Temperate sea. Kajika, Owase, Mie, Japan. -18m

Macro : Sporochnus radiciformis (R. Brown ex Turner) C. Agardh

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ケヤリ

When Spring has come, we can see the algae which have a head like a small Pom Pom Ball on the end of branches. This algae is popular as the background of a photo of fish. This is Sporochnus radiciformis (R. Brown ex Turner) C. Agardh. It belongs to Class Phaeophyceae, Family Sporochnaceae. It is a distributed Pacific side south from Kanto. It is called “Keyari” in Japanese. At the Edo era (1603-1868), when a lord traveled as a corp, decorated spear, named Keyari, is used as the mark of the corp head, so it is called Keyari as the common name. This algae is distributed in Australia also. Please tell me a common name in English. Kushimoto, Wakayama, Japan.

Macro : Shiho’s seahorse ハナタツ

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Hippocampus sindonis Jordan & Snyder, 1901

The Maracot Deep

Looking at the seahorse, I always remember a scene from the old science fiction novel “The Maracot Deep (1929)”. This novel is the work of Arthur Conan Doyle, famous for the adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The story is the adventure that marine scientists discover the sunken city Atlantis. I can’t forget is the scene where huge size seahorse eating eyeballs of huge halibut. What’s even scarier, the victim halibut have been sucked its eyeballs by the slender mouth of seahorse. So that I was a child age, it made scare my little heart. The seahorse of the photograph is a small size one called Shiho’s seahorse. This is about only 5 cm, tiny, cute, creature. However, if it would be over 10m….. I think stupid thinking.　Lol. Owase, Mie, Japan. -20m

Macro : A Uroptychus joloensis on the branch of Chironephthya sp.

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Common names, please

A Uroptychus joloensis on the branch of Chironephthya sp. We have a common name in Japanese for both of them. Uroptychus joloensis is Kudayagi-Moebi. Chironephthya sp. is Kudayagi. Moebi is the shrimp belong to Hippolytidae, and also, it means small shrimp in Japanese. I want to know their common name in English. Although I checked many books and sites on the internet. I can’t find out. Can you help me? By the way. According to SeaLifeBase. they live at Deep-water, depth range 20 – 250 m. Fortunately, this pic was taken -18m. Thanks to shallow water, I could stay at the bottom of the sea a long time to take a photo. Hitotsu –ishi point, Owase, Mie, Japan. Owase is nice place.

Oriental flying gurnard

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Dactyloptena orientalis

Hi, this photo is not the same as I uploaded the previous time.
The description of the photo is different.
Thank you, Ron Silver.
He taught me the correct name as below.
“Based on geographic location, this is Dactyloptena orientalis (Dactylopterus volitans is an Atlantic/Caribbean species”
This pic is taken at Owase, Mie, Japan.
I re-upload the photo that corrects the name on the picture.
Thank you.

Close-up : Longfin batfish ツバメウオ

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Platax teira (Forsskål, 1775)

Shy and friendly

Longfin batfish are often seen from late summer to spring at the artificial reef point, called Gyosho point (The top is -18m. The bottom is -23m). They come from anywhere with a couple or three. And will go away to somewhere. At first, they are shy. When they look at divers, they hide behind the reef blocks. However, after a while, you will be able to shoot from nearby. It is a fun scene for them to swim behind divers looking for Longfin batfish. This picture was taken during a “safety stop”. If they feel like it, they will rise up with divers and see off. Owase, Mie, Japan. -5m

Close up : Flying gurnard セミホウボウ

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Dactylopterus volitans (Linnaeus, 1758)

Flying gurnard doesn’t fly, yet cool

Flying gurnard has beautiful bright spots on its back, so, there are many photos taken from the top. But I like this angle. Big chest fins like wings. A dorsal fin like a vertical tail. Pelvic fins like landing gears. It looks like a fighter waiting for takeoff. When observing, it runs on the sea floor dexterously and floats up around 10cm from the sea floor, flying about 1m and lands on the sea bed. Flight performance doesn’t seem to be very good, yet, it’s cool. Kajika, Owase, Mie, Japan. -18m

Wide Angle : Purple sea pen ヤナギウミエラ

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Virgularia gustaviana (Herklots, 1863)

Sea pen forest at Hasama

These rare sea lives that appear to be bird feathers stuck in the bottom of the sand is called a Sea pen. In Japanese, Umi-Era. The Umi means the sea. Era means gills. Sea pens belong to octocoralia, so-called soft coral, like a Sea Wip or tree coral. Ordinarily, this species is, during the day, it hides into the sand, and when it gets dark, it is appearing from the sand, and spreads its wings. However, in Hasama, even in the daytime, we can often see the mysterious sight of the numbers of Sea pens are standing like the forest. Hasama, Tateyama, Chiba, Japan. -18m.

Macro : Parablennius yatabei イソギンポ

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Jordan & Snyder, 1900

It is not rare but cute

The Yatabe blenny is a species of combtooth blenny. Two sticks protruding from the head are marks. It is not difficult to see them at the rocky shore in Japan. However, this Yatabe blenny lives at the sandy bottom area. So that his home is the hole of a steel pipe. This pipe is a part of a scaffold that was sunken to make it a fishing reef. This blenny is about 8-10cm. It seems an adult fish. Osezaki, Izu peninsula, Japan. -12m.

Macro : Young Pineconefish マツカサウオの幼魚

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Monocentris japonica (Houttuyn, 1782)

Shape is the adult, yet very tiny and cute

Matsukasa-uo in Japanese. Matsukasa is pine corn. uo is fish

Pinecone fish are displayed as “Luminous fish” in many aquariums. It is interesting to see the area under the eyes of them are fluorescing in the darkened tank. Generally, they live in the deep sea, However, young Pinecone fish are found shallow water where we can watch longtime in Scuba Diving. Many fishes are different shape young age and grownup. There is a lot of fish that the appearance is largely different in child and adult. Although the shape of Pinecone fish is as same as an adult, it is very cute that swimming around under the of rock reef in the tiny body.

Macro : Warty frogfish クマドリカエルアンコウ

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Antennarius maculatus (Desjardins, 1840)

The secret of camouflage. Flashy costunes good for at the flashy background

Frogfish is one of the fish that is hard to find, even though it is in flashy fashion wear. It is a surprise because the colorful pattern mixes with the colors of sponges or rocks. It is said the warty frogfish grows up to 15 cm long. This guy seems very young, the length is under 1cm. Can you see a small esca is at the center of his head? The esuca is a fake bait. Frogfish uses this as a fishing lode. It is very interesting what kind of fish is cached by this tiny frogfish. Osezaki, Izu peninsula, Japan. -12m.

Macro : Yellow pygmy-goby ミジンベニハゼ

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Lubricogobius exiguus Tanaka, 1915

cool face sometimes

As the common name suggests, Yellow pygmy-goby is small bright yellow goby. Osezaki (Izu peninsula, Chiba) is a famous place where can watch that cutey fish. An old bottle is on a sandy seabed at the depth about -20m, Yellow pigmy-goby is appearing their faces from the mouth of a bottle. Its lovely face is popular for divers, but it also shows a cool face sometimes.