Fish ID, Shaw's Cove

[alaity47]

Ok, this guy's driving me bonkers. We spotted him flitting around like a painted greenling, mostly with his belly on the rock. He looks kind of like a kelp bass to me, but the coloring and the shapes of the bars seem a bit off. Is it just a juvenile kelp bass?

http://gallery.thelaitys.com/uw-20050704_laguna/CRW_0829

 

[scottfiji]

Nope, young kelp bass look like this:
http://www.scubapost.net/gallery/Anacapa20050526/Anacapa20050526_016

Its either a spotted sand bass or a barred sand bass, both have spots and bars, I'm not familiar with the young forms of either though, it has some characteristics of both.

Nice picture!

Scott

 

[SoCalAngel]

Ok, this guy's driving me bonkers. We spotted him flitting around like a painted greenling, mostly with his belly on the rock. He looks kind of like a kelp bass to me, but the coloring and the shapes of the bars seem a bit off. Is it just a juvenile kelp bass?

http://gallery.thelaitys.com/uw-20050704_laguna/CRW_0829

Went to the divebums site at http://www.divebums.com/main.html. It is a spotted sand bass or Paralabrax maculatofasciatus.

Great picture!!!!

 

[alaity47]

Yeah, I think you're right about the sand bass.

So is it just a color variation, or a juvenile phase?

 

[Lexy]

My vote is a juvie sand bass.

 

[ScubaSeanMaui]

I'd say it's a Barred Sand Bass(Paralabrax nebulifer)... I have had many dives at the Shores where I would see dozens of them on the slope sitting there.... I have never seen a Spotted Sand Bass that I am aware of. I used Humann to ID it

 

[drbill]

Looks to me like a juvenile barred sand bass since I almost never see the spotted sand basses. However, both juvies have bars that are darker than in the adult. It looks like there are spots near the belly though which might make it a juvie spotted.