Saltcorner
By Bob Goemans
By Bob Goemans
Hi Bob,
I collected these fish about two weeks ago during high tide on the west side of the main island of Luzon. I then checked your website to see if they were posted. I'm not sure, but I think these fish are not yet posted on your site, or maybe they are some of those yet without pictures.
Photos 378, 377, and 385 is definitely a goby. It has a split dorsal fin and it can 'cling' to the aquarium glass. When it stays under the rocks for a long time, it becomes all black with a somewhat orange color at its fin tips and tail. When it comes out, it displays a light-colored head and some stripes. I have even seen it as all-gray in color.
Photos 380, 379, and 334 looks like a goby, as it also has a split dorsal fin. But I don't really know what it is. All its fins are longer than usual, or longer for its body and looks more like a scorpion fish with very wavy fins. Good camouflage colors, too.
Photos 387 and 392 are pictures of the same fish. I caught about 20 of those (from a school of about 300). It feeds on floating matter and just like the two fish above, it also eats very small/baby freshwater guppies.
Please help me identify these fish. I hope these are not endangered. If so, I would gladly either return them to where I caught them, or turn them over to the proper agency.
Thank you in advance.
By the way, should these be one of those which you have no pictures yet, you may use them (please let me know so I can show them to my kids that I've contributed).
Thanks again! Dennis Jugueta Calatagan, Batangas Philippines
Hi Dennis,
Thanks for sending these, but most photos were too dark or blurry to ID. (They were all far too small in digital size to show here). And even though one was an obvious Cardinalfish, the other two remained impossible for me to judge, so I sent them off to my good friend Dr. Vincent Hargreaves who has dived your area. He thinks one is a blenny, yet can't be sure. The other, possibly a Scooter Blenny, but is also too dark to ID. However, the Cardinalfish, Photo 392 is Apogon ishigakiensis, which is quite common and not endangered. In fact, I don't have a photo of this species on my website, and will place yours there in the near future with you name.
If you get better photos of the others, send them my way and we'll go from there.
Hope this helps,
Bob
