Photographer captures image of rare fish that walks on its ‘hands’

February 24, 20232 yr

The title of this thread is a title of recent article (Photographer Nicolas Remy captures image of the rare spotted handfish | CNN).

How would you read it: the photographed fish is rare, or a fish walking on its "hands" is rare?

February 24, 20232 yr

Hand fish are not particularly rare and fish that walk along the bottom aren't particularly rare either. If this one was seen in freshwater as the article suggests that would be rare IMHO.

February 24, 20232 yr

Author

14 minutes ago, Moontanman said:

Hand fish are not particularly rare and fish that walk along the bottom aren't particularly rare either. If this one was seen in freshwater as the article suggests that would be rare IMHO.

Yes, frogfish and other walking fish are quite common in Bonaire. That is why the article title looked wrong and misleading to me. But then I thought, maybe I just read it wrong (as English is not my native language.)

February 24, 20232 yr

The photo caption calls the species "elusive" and "critically endangered".
"an unusual kind of fish ... The spotted handfish"
"the spotted handfish, and its even more critically endangered relatives, the red handfish and Ziebell’s handfish"

The article says the species is rare, and it says those two other handfish species are even rarer, but it doesn't explicitly say anything about handfishes in general.

Edited February 24, 20232 yr by Lorentz Jr

February 24, 20232 yr

Author

OK, I assume the vagueness of the article title is a click bait. The fish is rare regardless of it walking on its "hands".

February 24, 20232 yr

Author

Speaking of the devil... Here is a fresh photograph of our own walking fish, frogfish. Not very rare but often gets unnoticed because of the wonderful camouflage. Taken by a friend of mine, much better uw photographer than me.

February 24, 20232 yr

6 minutes ago, Genady said:

Speaking of the devil... Here is a fresh photograph of our own walking fish, frogfish. Not very rare but often gets unnoticed because of the wonderful camouflage. Taken by a friend of mine, much better uw photographer than me.

Nice pic.

I do remember having watched cousins of these guys in some documentary. Different colour perhaps, but general appearance very similar.

February 24, 20232 yr

Author

1 minute ago, joigus said:

Nice pic.

I do remember having watched cousins of these guys in some documentary. Different colour perhaps, but general appearance very similar.

They come in different colors here, too. What is interesting, they know to stay on a sponge which matches their color.

I'll look in my pictures for a different frogfish and will post if I find one.