Just Splendid!

This is our first trip to Cozumel, and conditions have been pretty nice. My beautiful wife and dive spotter found this fellow under a ledge.

Such a great fish, Steve. Never seen one (having never been to Cozumel).

Alex

Tough to shoot sometimes. Saw one in Roatan and it was so far under the ledge I could not get it lit. Nice work.

Todd

Fab - is he about to eat the shrimp do you think?

Thanks Alex. I was so excited when my wife waved me over. It was like he was posing.

Yahsemtough. I thought that the Splendid Toadfish is endemic to Cozumel. Maybe you saw a related toadfish in Roatan.

Tazzie. I think it was the other way around. The shrimp is eating him, one small bit at a time! Ha!

This is our first trip to Cozumel, and conditions have been pretty nice. My beautiful wife and dive spotter found this fellow under a ledge.

 

Great shot, I love those guys. (I go to Cozumel fairly often, going the end of this month )

Lot's of great dive sites down there. Getting misty eyed now

What were you shooting lens wise?

Great shot, I love those guys. (I go to Cozumel fairly often, going the end of this month )

 

Lot's of great dive sites down there. Getting misty eyed now

 

What were you shooting lens wise?

This is our first trip here. The first day the water was a bit turbid; ONLY 80ft vis. Ha! Today the water was crystal clear. The only other time I have seen clearer water was in Roca Partida, but that was 300 miles from shore! For this image I was using the 100mm macro.

For the first couple of days I shot the 17-40 mm WA zoom to get some of the large vista shots. Tomorrow we are going to the mainland to dive Dos Ojos and I plan to bring the 17-40 again. Such fun.

He is one cool customer

The ones here don't have such bright yellow fins !! Here I would call it a frogfish, btw (no, not an anglerfish!). Apparently so called because the croak

the males can have broods of young around in their burrow at times - worth watching out for B) !

Great shot of a splendid fish, (and shrimp)

This is our first trip here. The first day the water was a bit turbid; ONLY 80ft vis. Ha! Today the water was crystal clear. The only other time I have seen clearer water was in Roca Partida, but that was 300 miles from shore! For this image I was using the 100mm macro.

 

For the first couple of days I shot the 17-40 mm WA zoom to get some of the large vista shots. Tomorrow we are going to the mainland to dive Dos Ojos and I plan to bring the 17-40 again. Such fun.

I am getting excited now and thanks for the info about the water viz

I love diving down there (Cozumel and the mainland) and I have been in Dos Ojos and some of the other Cenotes (wide angle )

Have fun and if you are looking for some good places to eat, Pancho's Backyard and La Choza (among others) are a good bet. Also a couple of good coffee shops and ice cream places. Like I said I am getting misty eyed.

Thanks for the photo again, it bought a smile to my face.

This is our first trip to Cozumel, and conditions have been pretty nice. My beautiful wife and dive spotter found this fellow under a ledge.

Steve, I like it and I'm just as happy seeing the golden coral cleaner shrimp! I love those shrimp and I don't get to see them that often......

Tough to shoot sometimes. Saw one in Roatan and it was so far under the ledge I could not get it lit. Nice work.

Todd

Todd, yea I know there is/are one or more folks who consider themselves "experts" telling divers (usually at CoCo View) that they have the splendid toadfish but all I saw there were the large eye toadfish. Leslie, formerly the Field Operations Coordinator, of REEF questioned me among others and concluded it was just erroneous data - no splendid toadfish around Roatan.

That said if anyone ever has a legitimate sighting of the splendid toadfish outside Cozumel please email REEF with as much data about it as possible. Then they can investigate wether it came unnaturally through "release" or if somehow the species has "spread out". Toadfish so interesting in that the species are so site specific. We have the leopard toadfish off our coast here and the oyster toadfish on the East coast of Florida and they stay on their respective coasts (any other reports are usually erroneous as they do look similar but are different species to the trained eye). Plus Belize has their toadfish, etc etc. Some toadfish (like the gulf toadfish) do range a bit but don't seem to spread out of their known and limited ranges.

So just a heads up on if anyone sees the splendid anywhere other than Cozumel please let REEF know and send pic!! B)

Thanks Steve, your wife has a good eye!!! Lucky you!!!

Best, Carol

I guess they can say that when it is so far under the ledge and it is impossible to tell. LOL

I stand corrected then.

Cheers

Todd

I guess they can say that when it is so far under the ledge and it is impossible to tell. LOL

 

I stand corrected then.

 

Cheers

 

Todd

Yes Todd but maybe not (maybe you are correct)???? B) That's why I posted. Leslie at REEF (who is quite the fish expert and fairly recently even got a cardinalfish named after her - a new species she found); anyway Leslie really did quite the investigation to see if the splendid toadfish had expanded its range but she concluded not.

But Todd - 'Peterson's Guide to Atlantic Coast Fishes' [Robins and Ray - pub 1986/reprinted 1999] notes that the splendid toadfish was reported around the Florida Keys I think - released through aquariums probably. But that might have been old data and possibly not fully confirmed. And I've seen no evidence or pics that the splendid toadfish has been sighted anywhere outside Cozumel and someone would have seen it in the Keys if it had indeed taken hold there.

Of course it is such an exceptionally lovely fish - one of the most striking around that it would be wonderful if it did expand its range naturally. Everyone keep your eyes (and camera lenses out)! Carol

Of course it is such an exceptionally lovely fish - one of the most striking around that it would be wonderful if it did expand its range naturally. Everyone keep your eyes (and camera lenses out)!

The colors are incredible on the times you get to see them free swim, though they do seem to prefer barely poking out in hard to shoot spots You can hear them croaking at night.

I'm amazed how well lit it is with no hot spots. It seems every time I find one they're tucked so far in the hole that the only thing that would do the trick is a ring flash.

Can I hire your wife as a dive spotter?

How very splendid that she found it for you!

Wives like that are a real treasure.

I've been to Cozumel three times and have seen a splendid toadfish but have never been fortunate enough to be able to get an image of one.

Your image is very nice!

Ellen

I'm amazed how well lit it is with no hot spots. It seems every time I find one they're tucked so far in the hole that the only thing that would do the trick is a ring flash.

I have to admit that I lightly dodged the sand below the fish since it was a bit hot. Other than that, I didn't do any other edits.

Can I hire your wife as a dive spotter?

Sorry, she is taken

Wives like that are a real treasure.

I agree.

I've been to Cozumel three times and have seen a splendid toadfish but have never been fortunate enough to be able to get an image of one.

 

Your image is very nice!

Thanks. Sometimes it seems like the more dive, the luckier I get (to paraphrase Samuel Goldwyn)

Here is another face view of this guy. He was being amazingly cooperative.