Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Lookdown


"Lookdown" is the name of a fish - one of the most surprising fish I saw yesterday. It is about 6" or 7" long and is known for how thin it is, and it's bright shimmering blueish-silver scales which are highly reflective. They look beautiful when their scales reflect the light off the sand at the bottom of the tank. The scientific name is Selene vomer, they range from the Maine all the way to Uruguay. They generally live in shallow coastal waters over sand or mud. So this means they are in the Atlantic Ocean, right off our shores! That is a surpprise - I thought they were tropical. By the way, this is a photograph of one fish, with part of another fish behind it - I chose this because I like that it looks confusing at first. It is really astounding to see this fish in person - I spent perhaps ten minutes just studying them in their tank.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

people should be more like fish. these are kind of pretty, but do they have a "higher" place in the water than say, a catfish? do fish discriminate, based on color, size, whether the species is consumed by humans? do yellowfin tuna get more repsect than porgies because people eat yellowfin raw? funny how this picture makes me think about what it's like to be a fish. Is it better than being a human?