Android users are allowed to view the sculpin but iOS users are BANNED from ENJOYING SCULPIN. THIS IS A VIOLATION OF OUR SACRED RIGHT TO VIEW PICTURES OF WEIRD LOOKING FISH.
Its four bony "horns", lumpy head and sharp, spiny fins make it a tough bite to swallow to bigger animals! It tends to live in brackish coastal waters, but some populations are landlocked in freshwater habitats and individual coastal sculpins may swim up rivers.
Some critters from nightlighting on San Juan Island January 16th, 2024
Video ID: no sound. Little larval sculpin swims by a blue green light in the water. The camera goes under the surface to reveal a squid bobbing back and forth and then pans down to catch a seal as it swims down and away under the pier. The video cuts to a larvacean beating its tail to propel its little mucus house around a plastic cup. Finally a little baby giant pacific octopus bounces around with a little arthropod clinging onto its mantle.
Camouflage: When you think of camo, it’s usually some shade of green for a forest or grassland, or brown or a drier climate. However, in the brightly colored reefs of the Pacific Northwest, many inhabitants go bright, such as this type of large sculpin. Known as a red Irish lord, it is usually found on outcroppings where currents sweep prey to the front. It’s dwarfed by the plumose anemones, but Nat Geo Explorer Kiliii Yuyan couldn’t take his eyes off it. “I love that critter, “ Yuyan says. “I spent an hour underwater and he got his own photo shoot.”
Day 26 of Fishuary! Can you believe there’s only three days left?
Prompt: Tidepool
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Sticking with my theme of ‘if it’s Fishuary it has to be a fish.’
Oligocottus maculosus, tidepool sculpins, are so funny to me. Their heads are HUGE and shaped like a triangle, sorta serpentine almost.
These guys remember where they live! After tide comes in, they can return to their residential tidepool even after six months of being displaced! Similarly to arapaima and gar species, they are bimodal breathers, capable of breathing in oxygen from the surface of the water when necessary!
The cabezon is a large species of sculpin native to the Pacific coast of North America. Although the genus name translates literally as "scorpion fish", true scorpionfish belong to the related family Scorpaenidae. The cabezon is the only known member of its genus. This Cabezon was caught off the rocks of the Santa Barbara Coast. It provided enough for the four of us that night over a fire on the beach. Flavor is close to lobster, especially fried in butter!