Saturday, September 13, 2008

LIOPROPOMA SUSUMI: FULL BODY SHOT.

I had a request from a fellow ichthyophile (Adam Blundell) to show a full body shot of this fish, which I featured in a past post (I showed the head-on perspective - to see original post, click here). So Adam, here is a shot of the whole fish, in all of its radiant glory! I am fairly positive at this point that it is a color form of Liopropoma susumi.

4 comments:

Jake Adams said...

I think Liopropoma collettei is prettier in color and pattern. Do you have a shot of that species for comparison?

Anonymous said...

Scott-
In what ways do you think the superior posturing and position of the mouth impacts this fish's feeding and prey selection?

Scott Michael said...

Regarding L. collettei, I will post a photo of this beast soon. In my opinion, they are both lovely fish. Have you kept L. collettei Jake? It intrigues me, that while this is a wide-ranging species (at least from Papua New Guinea east to the Hawaiian Islands), I had not seen a live specimen or even a photo of a live fish until last year. Now there are a glut of them in the trade (click on Diver's Den icon to the right to see several for sale at www.liveaquaria.com).

Scott Michael said...

Adam: please stop asking such difficult questions... No, really, it is a good question, but there is so little data on the natural diets of the reef basslets that to conclude how its superior mouth position affects its food habits is not possible. The individuals I have kept do not seem to be selective about what they eat - they will knock of ghost shrimp and baby livebearers with gusto. Of course, the positioning of the jaws is similar to some of the other serranids (e.g., compare with the Anyperodon featured earlier).