Anyone know these fish?

The first was taken in very shallow water in Palau. They are very tiny.

The second is a Wrasse taken in the Cayman Islands.

Third was in Fiji.

The fouth is a Damselfish from the Philippines.

Thanks,

Craig

I expect the top one is a dragonet but hard to say which one from this orientation.

The last one is the princess damsel (Pomacentrus vaiuli)

The second I would guess to be initial phase yellowhead wrasse. I've not seen them with such a white dorsal color but the lines behind the eye are typical.

I haven't seen the third one but the shape looks a bit like a whiptail, genus Pentapodus. Try and see if any of them from the Fiji area resemble your fish.

Bart

Thanks Bart,

I just got Fishbase to work, and you were right, it was the first Pentapodus I looked at, aureofasciatus. I had looked at Whiptails before, but in none of my books do they show the uppper tail flag. The first two photos in fishbase show it.

The white upper body on the Wrasse is also what has thrown me off.

In all my books, and also on fishbase, the Princess Damsel is shown with oposite colors to my picture. The top is yellow and the lower body blue and the ocellated spot is on the Dorsal fin not the Anal. They all do however have the same blue earspot.

Craig

Hi Craig,

Your Princess damsel has the normal colour with orange on top and blue below. But the way you show the image it is upside down. Just look at the ventral and anal fins which are shown on top. They should be on the bottom.

Bart

Hi Bart,

I've been looking at this image for seveal years. If you take it and invert it is still wrong, the fish is still upside down. Look at the mouth and eyes.

Craig

Bart is right. A useful clue is the ocellated spot (sometimes considered false eye) which is in the upper part of the body near the tail.

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... although I would be interested to hear from Bart if these spots ever occur in the lower half of the body....

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Yeah I know. I can't believe I've been looking at this thing upside down for about 3 years trying to figure out what the hell it was becauce all the colors and spots were oposite what it should be. I take a lot of pictures upside down and must have hit a rock with my head.

Craig

Here is the damsel after rotating 180 degrees. Looks perfectly normal. Not sure if you inadvertently rotated it yourself or took the image from the top and shooting backwards.

Ocellated spots tend to occur on the dorsal fin or both the dorsal and anal fins at the same time. I can't quickly think on one only having such a spot on the anal fin. But colors can lie, morphology normally does not. Damsels only have one dorsal fin and two fins anal and (paired) ventral fins on the bottom. That tells you the fish was upside-down.

Bart

Thanks Bart,

I just checked and I've been looking at that fish upside down since 1-10-2012. I only have a few left that I can't ID and I'll try to post them tomorrow. Pretty sure none of them are upside down.

Craig