Stinkfish and Dragonets, Howies Scuba

Fish Identification Perth WA

Shore Diving

Stinkfish & Dragonets

Dragonets are small perciform marine fish of the diverse family Callionymidae (from the Greek kallis, "beautiful" and onyma, "name"). Found mainly in the tropical waters of the western Indo-Pacific, the family contains approximately 186 species in 18 genera. The Draconettidae may be considered a sister family, whose members are very much alike though rarely seen. Due to similarities in morphology and behaviour, dragonets are sometimes confused with members of the goby family... (Wikipedia)

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Longspine Stinkfish
(Psuedocalliurichthys goodladi)

Photographs taken at both day and night at Rockingham DT.

Spotted Dragonet

(Repomucenus calcaratus)

The Spotted Dragonet looks very similar to the previous fish, however the Spotted Dragonet has a black mark on its dorsal fin which is just about identifiable here. But again I have struggled with these fish in this section.

All Photographs taken at Ammo Jetty.

Fingered Dragonet

(Dactylopus dactylopus)

This weird and wonderful little gem The Fingered Dragonet was photographed at Robbs Jetty. This is one of the most unusual fish I have ever seen, its not big only about 15cm, they were in a pair and generally blended in quite beautifully with the sandy silty seabed, its only because I nearly landed on one that I noticed it when it moved.

Dived at Rockingham DT after these photographs were taken and saw what I believed to be a either a Spotted Dragonet or a Longspine Stinkfish buried in the sand, however it was actually another Fingered Dragonet. If you see something buried in the sand appearing similar to the top photographs, get a little closer and you may see it raise its front fin (finger).

I do like these beautifully ugly little fish, these photographed at Kwinana Grain Terminal.

Notice the slight variation in the fins here, these bottom 4 photographs show the males, with the fin changing to a fine filament. The previous photographs show off the female which have the distinctive fingered fin with what looks like an eye.

eeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmmmmm !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When I photographed this at KGT I had no doubts I was looking at a juvenile Dragonet.... now I am not too sure...

I have to say this thing was tiny, and very skittish, so getting really close was really difficult.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated.

Phil Good from M.U.D has suggested that these could be Painted Stinkfish.... I have to say Phil Good is pretty good at identifying some of the unknown fish I have on this site.

Painted Stinkfish
(Eocallionymus papilio)

Images below taken on a night dive at Ammo Jetty.... not much better really.

IF YOU'RE NOT GOING DOWN: THEN WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU GOING