View Full Version : Strange orange fish in Loch Long
scottish-diver
25-04-09, 20:58
I had a dive at the A-Frames this evening and upon surfacing my buddy said he found an bright orange carp-like fish when on his safety stop.
Thought i'd see it for myself so ducked back down to 3m and there it was hiding in the kelp.
We had never seen anything like it before.
Its scales are bright orange like a gold fish and had pink translucent eyes.
Also looked like it had 2 lateral lines with purple/pink lumps running along them.
It's times like this that i wish i had a camera!
Does anyone have an idea as to what it could be?
Dive Tramp
25-04-09, 21:00
Uhuh, see here... http://finstrokes.com/scubaforum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=2807 ;)
scottish-diver
25-04-09, 21:09
Thanks for the quick reply!
Yeah that is the very fish we seen.
Can't believe how brightly coloured it is for being in Scottish waters.
It was in 3m at bang on low tide if anyone fancys going to have a look for themselves.
Thanks again mate. :)
We were there yesterday and didn't see it :(
Where was the little b***er?
Canadadiver
25-04-09, 22:28
Aha! Now I can admit that I had no idea what Ian was talking about when he said he saw it at the A-Frames 2 Tuesday's ago... The fish in the photo on Finstrokes is much more brightly coloured than in Great British Marine Animals (2005) (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/095228314X/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link) - is it rare to see a male in breeding colours, DT?
Dive Tramp
26-04-09, 07:46
It's fairly common in the fishy world for the males to change colour at breeding time in general. Note, fish such as the Sock-eye Salmon become virtually see through red at this time (just before it spawns then pegs out!). I'm no Marine Biologist but simply had the time to watch countless Nat Geo programs and the like, on Sky.
I guess the colour change could be acting as a warning to "baby snatchers" as it were, that Daddy is going to be much more aggressive if you (fish) venture too near his progeny.
Note, books on the subject have to choose which pics to show and usually choose those pics (some of them quite rubbish actually) of the species in their "normal" state. You will by now have seen that contributors to our diving forums often have far better images than those published in hard copy. If you have a good picture of something you may like to offer it for inclusion to a publishing house?
alexmaclennan
26-04-09, 07:58
I've only seen one lumpsucker. It was orange and both the color and the 'lumps' really stood out. It was staying close to a rope in Loch Fyne - in about 8 to 12m - which made me think that there might have been eggs there,
alex
Scuba-Doh!
26-04-09, 09:30
When you described the colour I never thought of the lumpsucker, I've only seen one of these once at St Cats (March last year) and it didn't have the same vibrant colours you described.
Found my photo of it:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2133/2321933126_f379252a41.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nand/2321933126/)
I've seen it on a couple of occasions in the last 6 weeks, my dive buddy has pictures.
It was identified as a lumpsucker.:)
Also saw one on the West cost of Loch Fyne, again buddy has pictures.:)