Saw two really cool fish today

[ChrisF]

I saw two really cool fish when I was out diving today. Both I have never seen before. The first was a Polka-Dot Batfish. It's a really ugly looking thing that looks like it's wearing a perminant frown. Here's a picture. The picture in the Humann's Reef Fish ID book is much better though.

Then there were these other guys that I can not seem to find in the Fish ID book. They had the body shape of an Orange Filefish, but they were silvery. Almost shiney. I don't remember seeing any spots. They also had some distinct markings on the side running laterally and then another kind of diagonally behind the eye.

Any idea what this might has been?

Sorry, I don't have pictures of the mystery fish

 

[jbd]

You had more to look at than I did. I spent part of my dive sticking my hand into holes on a very muddy clay bottom hoping to find mussels. None found. Might help this lake if there were some.

Is there some place on the web that you could find fish ID info?

 

[ChrisF]

Originally posted by jbd
You had more to look at than I did. I spent part of my dive sticking my hand into holes on a very muddy clay bottom hoping to find mussels. None found. Might help this lake if there were some.

Is there some place on the web that you could find fish ID info?

That sounds lovely I .... er.... won't tell you what the vis. was in the Gulf today........

Re: Fish ID
I tried Coral Relm , but I couldn't find any pictures of filefish at all, let alone this strange silvery one.

I'm still searching though.

 

[Dee]

Chris...How big was it? Small?

Could it be a Slender Filefish

The photo I have isn't showing much silver but I have seen them with almost no markings. The one in this photo is about 2.5" long.

 

[ChrisF]

Originally posted by Dee
Chris...How big was it? Small?

Could it be a Slender Filefish

The photo I have isn't showing much silver but I have seen them with almost no markings. The one in this photo is about 2.5" long.

It was at least a foot long, maybe a foot and a half.

 

[Rick Murchison]

Originally posted by ChrisF


It was at least a foot long, maybe a foot and a half.

Hmmm... that big...
Could it be an Ocean Triggerfish? They're frequently silvery but with little in the way of markings. The Scrawled Filefish gets that big too, but you'll usually notice spots as well as the lines...
Rick