Need help on an ID

[onbelaydave]

I found this guy at Santa Cruz Is., CA. last summer. To me, it looked like it had some sort of fungus growing on it and it was 2-3" long. Today, however, I saw an almost identical shot, so maybe this is a natural coloration. I still have no clue what this is so all suggestions are welcome

 

[Diver0001]

It looks like the same individual to me. The markings are virtually identical. It looks like a sculpin to me but there are hundreds of different ones. Here is a link to what it might be: A snubnose sculpin

http://www.westworld.com/~fabio/gallery/california-scuba-slideshow/san-miguel-snubnose-sculpin.htm

R..

 

[justleesa]

I did a search on google for that name and different looking fish (without the red on the back) came up in addition to the one Diver0001 showed....interesting
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Snubnose+Sculpin&btnG=Google+Search

 

[StevenB]

My best guess would be a scalyhead sclupin. Quite common in the north Pacific. Not sure how common they are in California. They vary considerably in coloring especially during mating. The cirri are not unusual and occur on many sculpins.

SB

 

[Diver0001]

Hmmmm.... "scalyhead sclupin" is one of the few things I've ever typed into Google that got zero hits even without the quotation marks.

Got a link for that?

R..

 

[Wolverine]

i think it is scalyhead sculpin...

 

[MarkH]

i think it is scalyhead sculpin...[/QUOTE Although it definitely looks like some kind of sculpin, I don't think it's a scaly head. What I know as a scaly head has a "stubbier" head. I'll try and attatch a picture of what I consider a scaly head sculpin.

 

[jlyle]

I took the liberty of forwarding the images to Daniel Gotshall for identification:

Dear Jim:

The fish is the Coralline sculpin, Artedius corallinus.

I assume you took the photo in the Monterey area. Thanks again for sharing.

Dan

 

[onbelaydave]

I took the liberty of forwarding the images to Daniel Gotshall for identification:

Dear Jim:

The fish is the Coralline sculpin, Artedius corallinus.

I assume you took the photo in the Monterey area. Thanks again for sharing.

Dan

Thanks for the work !!!