Category Fish & Aquatic Life

Thornback Ray

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The Thornback Ray (Raja clavata) is a marine (saltwater) fish in the Rajidae family of rays. 

The Thornback Ray has a flat body in the shape of a kite or diamond. It has broad, winglike pectoral fins. It has a long thorny tail. Its back is covered with many thorny, prickly spikes. Some of the thorns look like thick buttons, called bucklers. Older females also have thorns on their underbelly. 

It varies in colour, from light-grey or light-brown to grey with dark blotches or brown with light beige blotches. Its underside is creamy-white. Its eyes are close together at the top of its head. 

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Convict Cichlid

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The Convict Cichlid (Amatitlania nigrofasciata) is a freshwater fish. It is also known as the Zebra Cichlid or the Black-Striped Cichlid. 

The Convict Cichlid has an oval-shaped bluish-grey body with 8 or 9 vertical black and white stripes. British convicts wore black and white uniforms, which is why it is called Convict Cichlid. The male has a lump on its forehead. The female has darker black bands. 

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Black Sea Turbot

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The Black Sea Turbot (Scophthalmus maeoticus) is a marine, saltwater fish in the flatfish family. It is a sub-species of the Turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) from the Mediterranean Sea, but this is under discussion by taxonomists, because it might be related to the European Turbot (Psetta maxima). 

The Black Sea Turbot is thin and flat with a disc shape. Most flatfish have smooth skin, but the Black Sea Turbot has small spikes on both sides of its body. It is grey-black or brownish. Its eyes are small and close together. 

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Regal Angelfish

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The Regal Angelfish (Pygoplites diacanthus) is a tropical marine (saltwater) fish. It is also known as the Royal Angelfish.

The Regal Angelfish is thin and compressed. It varies in colour, but is usually black-blue edged with blue-white and orange stripes that are narrow and angle backwards. Its dorsal (back) fin is black or blue with blue dots. The anal (bottom) fin has yellow and blue bands parallel to its body. Its caudal (tail) fin is yellow.

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Common Stingray

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The Common Stingray (Dasyatis pastinaca) is a marine (saltwater) cartilaginous fish (without bones, like a shark). Instead of a bony skeleton, it has cartilage, which is the same substance as the human nose and human ears.

The Common Stingray is thin, flat, and diamond-shaped, but slightly wider than long (like a kite). It is pale-grey, brown or olive-green, with smooth skin. Its small mouth is located on its underside and its bulging eyes are close together on the top of its head. It has small blunt teeth. It has a long, tapering, whip-like tail with two dorsal fins and a venomous (poisonous) barb. It has five pairs of small gills, which enable it to breath underwater.

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Paroon Shark

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The Paroon Shark (Pangasius sanitwongsei) is a critically endangered freshwater fish in the Pangasiidae family of shark catfish. It is also known as the Giant Pangasius or the Pangasid-Catfish.

The Paroon Shark has a silver, curved underside and a dark-brown back. It has a wide, flat, whiskerless head. Its dorsal, pectoral and pelvic fins are dark-grey. Its dorsal fin is long and trailing.

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Bristlenose Catfish

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The Bristlenose Catfish (Ancistrus cirrhosus) is a freshwater fish in the Loricariidae family. It is also known as the Bushynose Catfish.

The Bristlenose Catfish has an armour-plated body – it is covered with bony plates. It has a suckermouth and a flattened, wide head. The male has fleshy tentacles, similar to spines, on his head. The female has much smaller tentacles on her nose. It can be brown, grey, grey, golden, or albino, with tiny white or yellowish spots.

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Black Pacu

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The Black Pacu (Colossoma macropomum) is a tropical freshwater fish in the Serrasalmidae family – it is a serrasalmid fish, meaning ‘serrated salmon family.’ It is also known as the Tambaqui and the Black-Finned Pacu. It is a characin fish, like the Tetra.

The Black Pacu is similar in shape to the Piranha because it is laterally compressed with large eyes and a slightly arched back. It has molar-like teeth, similar to human teeth (not sharp teeth like the Piranha). The lower part of its body is blackish, and the rest of its body is grey, yellowish, or olive. Its fins are black.

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Banggai Cardinalfish

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The Banggai Cardinalfish (Pterapogon kauderni) is an endangered tropical marine (saltwater) fish.

The Banggai Cardinalfish is pale whitish-beige with black vertical bands. It has a black vertical band running through its eyes. It has a long dorsal fin behind a smaller tasseled fin. Its pelvic fins are broad. It has a deeply-forked tail. Along its tail and across its body are a series of small white spots.

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Anglerfish

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The Anglerfish (Lophius piscatorius) is a bony marine (saltwater) fish. It is commonly known as the Angler in the Lophiidae family of monkfish.

The Anglerfish is mainly all head and hardly any body. It has no scales. Its head is large, broad, and flat. It has a fleshy growth from it head, called the esca or illicium, which acts like a lure. The esca, or illicium, is commonly known as the ‘fishing rod.’ It has a very wide mouth with jaws that have long pointed teeth. Its teeth point inwards. It has long filaments along the middle of its head.

Its pectoral and pelvic fins act like legs, and it can walk along the bottom of the sea. It has fringes on its head and body that look like seaweed, so that it can be camouflaged in its environment.

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Sailfin Tang

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The Sailfin Tang (Zebrasoma veliferum) is a marine (saltwater) reef fish.

The Sailfin Tang is beige with broad, yellow stripes and darker bands. It has yellow dots and stripes on the darker bands. It has a dark band with yellow dots across its eyes and another dark band behind its eye. It can turn dark-brown when it is stressed. It has a disc-shaped or round body. It has an extended snout (nose). It has a fin across the top of its body, called a sailfin. It has a yellow tail.

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Broadbent’s Frogfish

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The Broadbent’s Frogfish (Batrachomoeus trispinosus) is a tropical marine (saltwater) fish. It is also known as the Three-Spined Frogfish or the Broadbent’s Toadfish. Both of the terms Toadfish and Frogfish are frequently used.

The Broadbent’s Frogfish has a scaleless mottled brown body with sharp spines on its back. Its eyes are set high on its forehead. It has a large, downward-curved mouth. It has small gills on the side of its head.

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