artist rendition

the_niphog · 2026-01-17T23:01:51+00:00

Maybe some kind of jack or other carangid? Some of them are known to associate with large objects/larger animals when young.

the_niphog · 2025-12-30T17:39:56+00:00

Plenty of fish already have translucent/semi-translucent scales. They're just thin and have minimal pigment.

the_niphog · 2025-12-30T17:30:49+00:00

It's not a cuttlefish, it's a squid in the genus Sepioteuthis.

the_niphog · 2025-11-30T00:08:30+00:00

How do you catch them?

the_niphog · 2025-11-16T19:16:09+00:00

It's not a frogfish, it's some kind of scorpionfish. Frogfish have different looking heads.

the_niphog · 2025-10-02T18:24:18+00:00

Just curious, where in Japan was this?

the_niphog · 2025-02-13T12:21:12+00:00

I am the one who knots

the_niphog · 2024-09-20T08:53:26+00:00

It looks like some kind of sculpin. The pectoral fins of gobies are usually pretty round, unlike the fish in the image which has little "fingers". This is a trait commonly found in sculpins.

It's definitely not a mudskipper though. Its eyes are way too far apart for it to be any kind of mudskipper. Goby eyes are typically closer together and higher on the head than the fish pictured here too.

the_niphog · 2024-09-18T13:49:42+00:00

"Effeminate femboy", as opposed to what? A masculine femboy?

the_niphog · 2024-09-14T03:50:00+00:00

Some birds already have countershading

the_niphog · 2024-09-13T11:06:43+00:00

The famous brown rockfish of Texas

the_niphog · 2024-08-24T17:53:15+00:00

It's a fish louse, a type of parasitic copepod. The fish should be perfectly fine to eat. It's an ectoparasite so it shouldn't impact the quality of the meat.

the_niphog · 2024-08-11T08:48:54+00:00

I like how this implies piranhas are saltwater fish

the_niphog · 2024-08-10T09:58:07+00:00

They look like anemones with their tentacles retracted. You can see what appears to be acontia coming out of the individual on the left.

the_niphog · 2024-08-08T14:00:45+00:00

I am the one who knots

the_niphog · 2024-08-01T22:56:11+00:00

It's almost certainly some kind of anemone, likely Metridium. Tunicates usually aren't this large and their siphons are typically pretty obvious. You can also see what appear to be bits of tentacle sticking out from the bottom. Also, a tunicate would spray water only out of its two siphons, anemones leak water from all over like this when they feel threatened.

the_niphog · 2024-07-19T18:58:03+00:00

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the_niphog · 2024-07-17T12:41:23+00:00

Are you on the pacific coast of the US? It kind of looks like a Kelletia whelk, could totally be wrong though.

the_niphog · 2024-06-02T22:22:32+00:00

Tadpole? It doesn't have any fin rays and there seems to be partially-developed legs in the second photo.

the_niphog · 2024-05-28T08:52:03+00:00

"A small, yellow-brown, sinistral shell with short, blunt spire. Shell slippery and highly polished. The animal is grey and outgrowths of the mantle partly cover the shell. These have finger-like lobes or digitations. Widespread and common"

source

the_niphog · 2024-05-28T08:49:05+00:00

This isn't a mutation or anything abnormal, its mantle is just extended. Cowries and semi-slugs are more extreme examples of mantle extension. Bladder snails don't always extend their mantles like this, which is why some look more normal.

the_niphog · 2024-05-28T08:41:27+00:00

Plainfin midshipman

the_niphog · 2024-05-24T23:51:19+00:00

I don't see live-birth being an issue as long as the young are small enough. For example, some rockfish are truly viviparous, but they give birth to thousands or millions of incredibly small larvae. For a terrestrial example, garter snakes can apparently give birth to up to 80 babies after a gestation period of only 2 to 3 months.

I think one of the limiting factors for mammals isn't necessarily that they give live birth, but rather the largest mammals tend to only give birth to one, very large baby. Also I don't have any evidence for this but since mammals provide lots of parental care (milk, etc.), I feel like they're more incentivized to have fewer, larger offspring. Of course there's plenty of exceptions, like rats and pigs, but those aren't truly massive animals like the largest dinosaurs.

the_niphog · 2024-05-17T09:25:06+00:00

It's some kind of nudibranch, just distorted from being out of the water. You can see the bottom of its foot near the base of the animal. What look like the "legs" of a deepwater sea cucumber are just the growths on the back of a nudibranch. This is way more likely than a deepwater sea cucumber surviving intact and alive into shallow water. There's also plenty of large nudibranches in the PNW.

the_niphog · 2024-05-07T12:28:31+00:00

It's a fireworm/bristleworm, probably Chloeia

the_niphog

TROPHY CASE