Red Indian Fish


Posted by ChrisRoss on Sat Nov 11, 2017 4:39 am

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Red Indian Fish  Pataecus fronto

Took the EM-1 MkII for its first dive yesterday at Bare Island near the entrance to Botany Bay, Lucky to find a Red Indian Fish, first one I've seen, these fish try to imitate dead leaves down to moving around with the surge just like a leaf would, apparently if you pick one up it will waft back to the bottom just like a leaf might, but will fall against the current to arrive back at the spot it left.  This one was around 250mm long.

Larger Image: Red Indian Fish

Olympus OM-D EM-1 MkII + 60mm macro, Nauticam housing. INON strobes

1/200 @ f8 ISO400
Chris Ross
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http://www.aus-natural.com   Instagram: @ausnaturalimages  Now offering Fine Art printing Services

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by SantaFeJoe on Sat Nov 11, 2017 10:33 am
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What a cool fish! I've never heard of it before. I don't know where the name came from, but it certainly looks like a Native American's eagle feather headdress. I'm posting a link, but I don't know if it will work to take you to the image I found of a headdress that looks the same:

http://www.google.com/search?q=eagle+fe ... 0414338991

Joe
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by Mark Boranyak on Sat Nov 11, 2017 1:13 pm
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Nice shot. You sure have a nice "Backyard" to dive in :-)

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by SantaFeJoe on Sat Nov 11, 2017 4:18 pm
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According to this, it does appear that the common name comes from the similarity to a Native American headdress:

https://australianmuseum.net.au/red-ind ... cus-fronto

Joe
Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.  -Pablo Picasso
 

by Tom Whelan on Sun Nov 12, 2017 12:51 am
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Excellent closeup, what an interesting creature.
Tom

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by ChrisRoss on Mon Nov 13, 2017 7:48 am
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SantaFeJoe wrote:According to this, it does appear that the common name comes from the similarity to a Native American headdress:

https://australianmuseum.net.au/red-ind ... cus-fronto

Joe
Exactly, not many outside of Australian divers have heard of it, they are endemic to Australia, along with leafy and weedy sea dragons and a few other temperate water critters.  They are though one of the more elusive critters and as I said this is the first one I've seen in about 50+ dives on sites where are known.  My daughter though was shown one on one of her open water training dives!

Thanks all for the comments.
Chris Ross
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by Matthew Pugh on Tue Nov 14, 2017 5:42 am
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Hi

Looks like a fish with personality to me lol

A seriously fun subject and image


All the best
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by Craig Lipski on Wed Nov 15, 2017 4:19 pm
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Very cool subject, and very nicely captured.
 

by stevenmajor on Sat Nov 18, 2017 1:38 pm
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Stunning creature, very strong image.
TY
 

by SMB on Mon Nov 20, 2017 9:45 pm
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What a find Chris. These guys are so cryptic. Great shot.
Amazing that they are related to Scorpionfish. That spine can do a number on a finger!
Stan
 

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