Pacific Northwest Snail Fish ID Challenge

[Soakedlontra]

Can you guess what kind of snail fish is this one? I found it on a kelp blade in shallow water.

 

[TSandM]

I think it's a lighter colored showy: Northwest Dive Club • View topic - Whidbey Island Critters

 

[Soakedlontra]

Andy Lamb, author of Coastal Fishes of the Pacific Northwest, could not recognize the critter. He wrote me that he had never seen a snailfish with those markings before...(I thought it may have been a juvenile Tidepool Snailfish). Unfortunately I don't have more pictures of this fish. It is a miracle that I was able to take that one.

 

[segal3]

Perhaps Liparis florae?

See the top fish in photograph by Milton Love, and image by Ron Wolf (assuming the ID is correct). Although the red eye is a bit of a difference...