Hey,

I know most of you collect mainly in freshwater, but here are some saltwater fish for a little change of pace. These pics are from a trip visiting my parents in south Florida back in March. All fish were caught (and released) in seagrass habitat using a dipnet.

Marcus

Species Collected:
Anchoa lamprotaenia - Bigeye Anchovy
Gymnothora vicinus - Purplemouth Moray
Hippocampus zosterae - Dwarf Seahorse
Syngnathus floridae - Dusky Pipefish
Scorpaena brasiliensis - Barbfish
Eucinostomus sp. - Mojarra
Lutjanus synagris - Lane Snapper
Haemulon plumieri - White Grunt
Haemulon sciurus - Bluestriped Grunt
Cryptotomus roseus - Bluelip Parrotfish
Nicholsina usta - Emerald Parrotfish
Sparisoma chrysopterum - Redtail Parrotfish
Sparisoma radians - Bucktooth Parrotfish
Doranotus megalepis - Dwarf Wrasse
Lachnolaimus maximus - Hogfish
Malacoctenus macropus - Rosy Blenny
Bathygobius curacao - Notchtongue Goby
Ctenogobius stigmaturus - Spottail Goby
Monacanthus ciliatus - Fringed Filefish
Lactophrys trigonus - Trunkfish
Sphoeroides testudineus- Checkered Puffer

Nice diversity of fish and nice pics. What do you use as an ID guide for SW fish?

Nice diversity of fish and nice pics. What do you use as an ID guide for SW fish?

great looking fish and man those are some cool gobies

Nice! I would really love to go collecting for pipefish and seahorses one day. Hopefully I get the chance to go back to Florida sooner or later.

I'm impressed!

Nice diversity of fish and nice pics. What do you use as an ID guide for SW fish?

Altantic Coast Fishes by Robins and Ray is probably the best all-around readily available guide, however, in some cases the info is a bit dated and the illustrations can frequently be misleading. Reef Fish Identification by Paul Humann is an excellent book for reef associated fishes, but lacks many of the seagrass, mangrove, oysterbed fishes you might encounter and ID is color and pattern based and does not include meristics. Probably the best guide available (but only if you are really into saltwater fishes) is the three volume set of the FAO species identification guide for fishery purposes: The living marine resources of the Western Central Atlantic edited by K.E. Carpenter. This one includes species keys for all species present in the region from Cape Hatteras, NC through the Gulf of Mexico and the Carribean to northern South America. The keys are broken down by family and were prepared by ichthyologists that specialize in that particular group of fishes. Some times you can get away with using just one guide, but I tend to use a combination of different guides.

Nice! I would really love to go collecting for pipefish and seahorses one day. Hopefully I get the chance to go back to Florida sooner or later.

Thanks! pipefishes and seahorses are interesting fishes, and fortunatly easy to catch too! You don't have to go to Florida there are species present all along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. Be careful keeping them though, they can be difficult.

Looking at those pictures make me miss Florida I used to enjoy snorkeling off Bahia Honda in the seagrass and seeing many of those species. Maybe in a few years I can go back and stay for good. Did you see many long spined sea urchins? They are very cool but painful. I accidentally stabbed myself with one when I went last time. (don't grab rocks if you don't know what is under them)
Here is a picture I took of a Yellow spotted stingray in a sandy patch off Bahia Honda