Squirrelfish, Sargocentron sp.

Good morning out there, I hope you all had a great weekend and went out and did something fun. I have a small, three inch Sargocentron sp. or squirrelfish for you today once again found on our last expedition to St. Eustatius, which is a super tiny island in the Caribbean. Remember we talked about the “sp.” which means “species’ meaning it may or may not be a new species from this family, we all have to sit tight and wait for a little DNA to come back before we all know for sure. Squirrelfish tend to spend their days hanging out in the shadows or under reef overhangs minding their own business and become more active at night.

Deep-Sea Crab

Good morning, I have a cool little crab (about 2 inches wide) from the recent Statia expedition found with a deep-sea submersible by scientists from the Smithsonian Institution and Substation Curacao. Crabs are not always easy to photograph! This one here kept burying himself in the sand with just his or her eyes showing, so finally I gave up and covered the sand with shells giving this little guy no options other than to just sit there and smile for the camera. I’m guessing that this is some kind of swimming crab but again once I get a positive ID I will update these blogs. Have a great day out there.. Barry NEWER POST:

Sphoeroides dorsalis, Deep-Sea Puffer

Hi friends, I have a little two inch Sphoeroides dorsalis for you all today which is super similar to the shallow water bandtail puffer that I have sent you all more than once. Unlike the bandtail this guy is found very deep, it’s smaller and is much more colorful than it’s shallow swimming cousin. The bandtails were also very grumpy and hated to be photographed much like this little treasure who was very uncooperative from the start making this photo super hard to take. This was once again found miles off the coast of St. Eustatius in the Caribbean by the Smithsonian Institution using a deep-sea submersible from Substation Curacao.

Liopropoma mowbrayi, Cave Bass

Good morning, I’m having one of those can’t catch up, too much to do weeks and like always these blogs tend to suffer. If you ever see just a photo and no text like yesterday you know I am busy.. This is one of the many super small, colorful, deep-sea basses that high end aquarium collectors go crazy for, this one is called a cave bass or Liopropoma mowbrayi. When I say small, I’m talking around three inches in length and NO these are not babies or juveniles they are in fact full grown adults. These little sea-bass or basslets come in a wide range of beautiful colors and are very reclusive making them very hard to find.