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Fish Bits

Photos, visitors, weird and wonderful specimens, news from the field.

Our Bloggers

Mark McGrouther
Collection Manager, Ichthyology

Amanda Hay
Technical Officer, Ichthyology

Archives

Butterflyfish larva 05 Apr 2012

This week in Fish: Stephanie and Spadenose Clingfish

The highlights of the week were the commencement of a new stint of employment for Stephanie Baccarella and the arrival of two specimens of Spearfish Remora. The Spearfish Remora is a pale pink fish that uses its sucking disc to attach to the gills of marlin and spearfish. These specimens are the first for the collection and will definitely feature on the website soon. There is still so much to learn about Australian fishes!  Thank you as always to all our contributors.

Fish Bits, Mark McGrouther

Eel leptocephali 20 Apr 2012

Large Muraenid Leptocephali

This stunning video shows large leptocephali that were filmed by divers at three locations within the Indonesian Archipelago from 2009 to 2011. 

Fish Bits, Mark McGrouther

Orange Anemonefish, <em>Amphiprion sandaracinos</em> 30 Mar 2012

This week in Fish: Incredible eel movie

Despite having a few days off work with a cold, the week turned out to be very exciting on the web front.  We added a great new video to the museum's YouTube channel, plus added some stunning new images.  Thanks as always to everyone who contributed.

Fish Bits, Mark McGrouther

John Paxton and Alan Williams 23 Mar 2012

This week in Fish: Bridled Clingfish

This week we feature a great movie clip of two Numbfish up close and personal.  Alan Williams from CSIRO Hobart visited to work on lanternfishes.  As usual there are plenty of new fish images.  Thanks to all.

Fish Bits, Mark McGrouther

Male and female Numbfish 23 Mar 2012

Mating Numbfish

Roger Lee from the Diving Organisation of University of Technology Sydney (DOUTS) recently captured this terrific footage of Numbfish mating behaviour. The fish were filmed at depth of 10 m, Latitude Rocks, Foster, New South Wales on 17 March 2012.

Fish Bits, Mark McGrouther

Longhead Flathead, <em>Leviprora inops</em> 16 Mar 2012

This week in Fish: Fish eyes through the lens

Among other great images, we have posted photos of the eyes of a Longhead Flathead and a Smalltooth Flounder. The images were not taken with fish eye lenses :). Nearly all species of fishes have eyes, but some don't.  We've provided some links to information on blind fishes plus one link to an Australian species that is blind-in-name-only.

Fish Bits, Mark McGrouther

John Pogonoski - 2012 19 Mar 2012

This week in Fish: Sawfish saw in action

"Sawfish seen in action" might sound more grammatically correct than "Sawfish saw in action", but if you click on the link below you'll see why I've given the blog post that name. Thank you as always to everyone who contributed images and comments during the week.

Fish Bits, Mark McGrouther

Green Sawfish, <em>Pristis zijsron</em> 06 Mar 2012

Sawfish saw in action

This movie clip shows a sawfish feeding. Sawfishes can slash from side to side with the rostrum to stun, impale or even cut prey fishes in half.  The rostrum can also pin fishes to the substrate where they are ingested.

Fish Bits, Mark McGrouther

Illustration of a larval Basslet 05 Mar 2012

Larval basslet movies

Fishes of the genus Liopropoma have have extremely long ornate second and third dorsal fin spines during their pelagic larval phase. This ornamentation is lost when the larvae metamophose during the transition between open water habitat and the reefs where Liopropoma species live as adults.

Fish Bits, Mark McGrouther

Blackmargin Dartfish, <em>Parioglossus marginalis</em> 02 Mar 2012

This week in Fish: Fan-finned mullet

This week we posted images of a strange mullet with elongated fins.  This is not the first image of a strange 'fan-finned' mullet that has been sent to the museum.  We also show an image of a rarely reported dartfish from Sydney Harbour.

Fish Bits, Mark McGrouther

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