Fish Id

[riceball]

Guys, caught this thing last Friday while live baiting for John Dory in port jackson. This fish looks like made for walking (on the sea floor). Any suggestion for the ID?

BTW, this thing was only winning the live bait yakka by 2cms, but he swallowed it.

[Flightmanager]

Member of the Rock Cod Family?

Ross

[kiwi waynie]

Hey Riceball,

Not sure which one but sure looks to be a type of angler fish.

http://www.amonline.net.au/fishes/students/focus/antpict.htm

Going by those pectoral fins/legs i'd say thats close. check the link?

I think you got your self a pretty rare catch there well done.

Lata Raida.

Waynie

[Flattieman]

I agree with Kiwi Waynie in the classification as an anglerfish. I'm quite sure that it's a Striped Anglerfish (Antennarius striatus). Another Raider, twoducks, encountered one that looks very similar to yours - take a look at this thread:

http://fishraider.com.au/Invision/index.ph...ic=13164&hl

Here's a few of pics of the Striped Anglerfish from fishbase:

And another from vibrantsea.net:

And one from Wikimedia:

One more from the WA Museum:

Just search in Google images if you need any more!

Hope this helps,

Flattieman.

Edited June 28, 2007 by Flattieman

[riceball]

Thanks for the info guys. It is a rare catch. I thought they only live in very deep sea where there’s no light at all. Because looks like it has no eyes. I also got a massive grinner as well on live yakka. That thing went all most 60cm. Looks like you can catch everything on those poor yakkas.

[abiasin]

man that is one ugly mutha.

[Garth0_7]

Looks like somone I once dated

[caine]

i recently heard a radio interview with an amercian marine bioligist that came over especialy to study angler fish in sydney harbour, the gist of the interview was that local divers have helped identify several new species. and some examples where frozen and taken back to the US for study