Eel-like fish ID

[FishLovingStudent]

They are in between lumpsucker and a real fish I have worked in the aquarium hobbyist trade, and while netting them is not easy as one would imagine they certainly do not move incredibly fast ,relative to other fish (try catching a damselfish or wrasse in a tank with rocks :furious. My point is, a pipefish would not move like the fish in the video, nor would its first instinct to be to bolt away as soon as I made any approach. I have not seen tropical pipefish in the wild yet, but I have yet to have a bay pipefish bolt from me yet (and my crappy camera requires me to get within inches of them)...

I am sorry for making hyperbolic statements, but please, it is not a pipefish and I am just curious about a fish I have not seen before.

 

[oszillodrom]

I concur in that it does not look like a pipefish to me, either. I suggest you post it to the Facebook group "ID Please (Marine Creature Identification)", there's quite a few experts posting on there, and I've seen some incredibly difficult sucessful IDs on there. If you get a positive ID, please share it on here, I'm curious. My gut guess would be a juvenile eel?

 

[jeangadbois]

I agree it's not a Pipefish the head is wrong and they just don't move like that I own and breed sea horses and pipefish, no idea what it is tho sorry.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

It does not look like a pipe fish to me either. The cross section looks circular too.

 

[diver 85]

Its not a bay pipefish or a pipefish of any kind. They do not swim by undulating their bodies like in the video, are as fast as a snail and do not have that general appearance (though the picture quality makes it hard to tell).

Here is a bay pipefish from the same dive.

View attachment 198389

Name it yourself & you'll become famous..........

 

[FishLovingStudent]

Hey, if its an unnamed/new species that would be great. I'd have an easy topic for my undergraduate thesis

 

[MarkH]

I looked in Andy Lamb's "Coastal Fishes of the PNW" and it looks like a quillfish.

 

[FishLovingStudent]

Was wondering if Coastal Fishes had it, Whelks to Whales has some holes which is to be expected.

I posted it to the ID Please page on facebook as suggested. They thought the same as you swankenstein, Ptilichthys goodei, Quillfish. A fairly rare find apparently, especially in the day. Not too much is known about them, I'll keep that in the back of my head, but I doubt I'll ever see another again anytime soon

Mystery solved!

 

[MarkH]

Was wondering if Coastal Fishes had it, Whelks to Whales has some holes which is to be expected.

I posted it to the ID Please page on facebook as suggested. They thought the same as you swankenstein, Ptilichthys goodei, Quillfish. A fairly rare find apparently, especially in the day. Not too much is known about them, I'll keep that in the back of my head, but I doubt I'll ever see another again anytime soon

Mystery solved!

In 18 years of local diving, I've never seen one.

 

[drbill]

Based on the video, I think you're right. Doesn't move like any pipefish I've observed (although I haven't observed that many here on the West Coast)