The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 181. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.
The Numbers Game #60
Tag Archives: Flatfish
The Numbers Game #28
The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 149. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.
Up close and personal
I saw this Flowery Flounder in shallow water and was able to get close enough to get this close up of the fish’s head. The bumps are the eyes.
The blue markings of the fish and the rainbow in the water made for a colorful photo.
A tiny Flowery Flounder
This is the smallest Flowery Flounder I’ve seen while snorkeling. It was probably about 3 inches long. The only reason I saw it was because it was moving for just a moment before it settled down.
If you can’t see it in the top photo, the cropped version should help.
Flowery Flounder in reverse
The top photo shows a Flowery Flounder resting on a patch of sandy sea floor. These fish blend in so well they’re almost impossible to spot. The trick is to spot them on the move (second photo). In motion, they’re quite distinctive with their undulating movement, especially if the pectoral fin is raised as in this photo.
The third photo shows the fish just as it landed on the sand to begin its very fast process of blending in.
Flowery flounder swimming
A flowery flounder scoots over rocks before settling down and blending in. I like these flounders because they always look grumpy!
Morning swim
On a morning swim with my wife a couple of days ago, we were lucky enough to see a spotted eagle ray cruising around looking for breakfast. It stopped often, to probe the sand and rocks for food, and was successful at least once, since it emerged from its efforts chewing and swallowing. This eagle ray looked a bit battered, with damage to its tail fins and a chunk missing from its right wing, but it didn’t seem to be affected by this at all.
As we continued swimming, I saw the ray heading the same way. For a while it followed us, got ahead, then we followed it. On the way we saw a couple of flowery flounders, a couple of day octopuses, a crowned jellyfish as roughed up as the ray, and an oriental flying gurnard. It’s not a great photo of that, but it’s the first one I’ve seen here.
Oriental flying gurnard 
Crowned Jellyfish 
Flowery flounder
Near the spot where we planned to turn around and head back, I passed over a hole in the rocks and, glancing down, saw the distinctive shape and colors of a green turtle. I think it must have chosen this spot to take a rest, but my appearance startled it and it clambered out of the hole and swam away.
Shortly after that, the turtle encountered the eagle ray. The two of them crossed paths a couple of times before going their separate ways.
Bright fishes
Pyramid Butterflyfishes 
Female Pearl Wrasse 
Bluespotted Cornetfish 
Ornate Butterflyfish 
Wedgetail Triggerfish 
Moorish Idol and Yellow Tang 
Flowery Flounder 
Manybar Goatfish 
Goldrim Tang 
Bluespine Unicornfish 
Common Longnose Butterflyfish 
Indo-Pacific Sergeant
This week’s Friendly Friday challenge theme is ‘Something Fishy.’ See more responses here.
This seemed like a good opportunity to post a gallery of some of the fish I see when I snorkel around here. Most are brightly colored or have distinctive markings.
Also posted in response to Becky’s April Squares challenge theme of ‘Bright.’ See more responses here.
