Search

Dusky rubberlips are oblong fish with pale grey-brown bodies that are darker on top. They have thick lips that become more fleshy with age.These fish are omnivores that feed on small bottom-dwelling invertebrates, small fish and seaweed. Juveniles tend to be more herbivorous than adults. Juvenile rubberlips commonly congregate around floating seaweed in shallow waters.Dusky rubberlips inhabit tropical rocky reefs of the African east coast, from Port Alfred to Kenya, and India to a depth of 80m.

Golden sea cucumbers are small, soft-skinned sea cucumbers, each with up to 10 tentacles resembling small trees.They spend most of their lives covered in sand, with only their tentacles protruding above the surface. If no suitable sandy environment is present, they will dwell in the gaps between other sea cucumber species, mussels and ascidians.Their tube-feet are small, and weak compared to other common sea cucumbers, and are arranged randomly over their whole body. These weak tube-feet are suited for digging into sand, but have poor adhesion to other surfaces, so it is quite common to see golden sea cucumbers washing up on shores after heavy storms.Like many other sea cucumbers, golden sea cucumbers are able to expel their toxic guts when threatened. This species is particularly prone to doing this when stressed - but fortunately, sea cucumbers are well equipped to regrow their lost organs.

Frogfish are so named because their bodies and fins are covered with wart-like bumps. As is the case with frogs and toads, you won’t get warts if you touch these grumpy-looking fish. Their vivid colours and globular shapes provide them with excellent camouflage, particularly around sponges which they will increasingly depend on for shelter as they get older. Their colouration varies - blood red, black, cream, tan, yellow and brown are all common, often with spot sand blotches of pink, white or red - thus it is very important for a frogfish to find sponges that match its colouration.

The carpenter is a small, elongated sea bream with a silver-pink body and faint, pale blue spots arranged in several horizontal bands along its sides.It is a predator, with pronounced canines that it uses to prey on sardines, anchovies and squid. As a juvenile it feeds primarily on crabs, amphipods and polychaetes.The carpenter is endemic to rocks reefs on the South African coast from Cape Point to Margate, and migrates to the Agulhas bank to spawn. Most adults are resident to a preferred area, but a small portion of carpenters disperse widely.Due to historic overfishing, the carpenter saw a significant decline in its population until limitations were placed on its commercial fishery in 2003. Since then, wild populations are slowly recovering.

The panga is pink with horizontal stripes made up of small blue spots on its sides. It has a prominent mouth with fleshy lips and large canines. These canines help it to prey on small crustaceans, squid and other small fish. Small hairs on its lips allow it to feed over soft sediment without swallowing any.It inhabits rocky reefs and sandy bottomed shores along the coast of southern Namibia and South Africa.

The dassie is a deep-bodied, oval-shaped fish with a silver body, black patch on its tail peduncle and red-pink tint to the tips of its fins. Juveniles also have several dark vertical bars on each side.it is an omnivore, with a mouth equipped with several rows of molars and canines.Dassies have a wide range on the Southern African Coast, from Angola to Mozambique. They inhabit a wide range of shallow environments, and juveniles are commonly found in rock pools.

This blue-grey fish has an oval-shaped body with several faint yellow horizontal stripes on its flanks and dark blue-grey fins.It has several sets of both incisors and a row of molars. They use this combination of teeth to pick up bottom-dwelling invertebrates and crush their shells. As they mature they become more omnivorous and will graze on algae.During spring and summer months, male steentjies will take on brighter blue and yellow colours and will construct nests in the sand. Once spawning has taken place, the males will remain at the nest to guard the eggs until they hatch.The steentjie occurs in large shoals above shallow, rocky reefs on the coasts of the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and southern KwaZulu-Natal.

The sergeant majors are small, oval damselfish. It has a grey body with a yellow dorsal area. Most notably, they have five vertical blue-black bars across their bodies.Although they sometimes form schools, the pair up during breeding. Breeding pairs have a preferred territory and will fight other fish to protect it. Once the eggs have been laid, the male will remain to guard and aerate them - this fierce behaviour is where they get their name "sergeant major" as well as their scientific name Abudefdul, with "abu" meaning father or guardian in Arabic.They are omnivores and will opportunistically feed on algae and small invertebrates.Juvenile sergeant majors are commonly found in tidal pools, while adults prefer rock and coral reefs on South Africa's Indian Ocean coasts. Globally, they occur throughout the Indo-Pacific, ranging from South Africa to the Red Sea, Japan and the Pitcairn Islands.

Blacktails are medium-size, oval, silver fish. Their tails are not black as their name suggests, but they do have a large black spot on each side of their caudal peduncle. As juveniles, they have 8 to 10 pale vertical bars on their sides, but these fade with age.They are omnivores, equipped with both strong molars and sharp incisors to help process a variety of foods including red and green algae, starfish, urchins, snails, bivalves, polychaetes and sea squirts.Blacktails inhabit many shallow environments on the South African and Namibian coasts. They are highly resident, and adults rarely leave their preferred home region.Blacktails are hermaphrodites, and unlike many other hermaphroditic fish species, there is no relation between their age or size and their sex. In fact, many blacktails are able to be both male and female simultaneously.

Bluefin gurnards are a common bottom-dwelling fish throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Their colouring may seem drab and unimpressive, camouflaging them will with the seafloor - until it spreads its brilliant blue pectoral fins, from where it draws its name.Just in front of these fins, you might notice that it appears to have a set of little “legs” that helps it creep along. These are not actually legs, they are modified rays of its fins, which the gurnards use to stir up the sand to find prey – small crustaceans. They are predators that feed on small crabs and shrimp.Gurnard's bodies are long and compact, with armoured, bone-plated heads.