Red Fingered Anglerfish

[Chris Ross]

In Australia we call them anglerfish, seems more appropriate for a fish that uses a lure to catch other fish.  The Red Fingered Anglerfish is endemic to the coast around Sydney and also reported form Jervis Bay to the south, they are maddeningly hard to find with amazing camouflage.  They come in 3 colour morphs, orange, grey and white with white being quite uncommon.  Here's a white on from a dive on the weekend.  You can see the red fingers on the pectoral fin on the RHS of frame.

 

[Davide DB]

Wow, I had to enlarge the photo to spot him. That's incredible!

[Troporobo]

That’s a very cool critter for sure! You made a nice image too.  Lighting those guys well makes all the difference, without the deep shadows this one would be invisible.  Nicely done.

I recall one site in Anilao that we frequented that housed a batch of different antennarius.  They were grey / dark red / slate blue and very “crusty” and matched the reef almost as well as this guy.  Even when one of us was pointing right at it, it would sometimes take movement from the fish before the “ah ha” moment.  Fun stuff, especially when they do that huge open-jawed yawn!

[RichN]

Nice Chris...

[Chris Ross]

5 hours ago, Troporobo said:

That’s a very cool critter for sure! You made a nice image too.  Lighting those guys well makes all the difference, without the deep shadows this one would be invisible.  Nicely done.

I recall one site in Anilao that we frequented that housed a batch of different antennarius.  They were grey / dark red / slate blue and very “crusty” and matched the reef almost as well as this guy.  Even when one of us was pointing right at it, it would sometimes take movement from the fish before the “ah ha” moment.  Fun stuff, especially when they do that huge open-jawed yawn!

I've pointed to them on the reef and received only shoulder shrugs in response, even signalled I'm now pointing to the eye and it didn't help.

[Buddha]

cool shot