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Hagfish
Cursed by lobster fishermen for the quantities of slime they produce when startled, these oceanic oozers secrete a white fluid which expands rapidly on contact with seawater, producing enough slime to fill a 7-litre bucket in minutes.
The sticky substance adheres to predators, forming a suffocating layer over their gills. The slime also creates problems for the hagfish itself, but it has developed a manoeuvre which allows it to escape – it knots its tail and, twisting the knot over its body, scrapes off the offending slime.
Although they look like snakes, hagfish are not snakes or eels, but belong to a unique group of animals.
They are primitive animals that have no jaws, no eyes, fins or scales. They have a cartilaginous skeleton and pouch-like gills not seen in any other living fish.
Living fossils, the species have changed little since the days of the earliest hagfish, which date back some 330 million years.
Scavengers of the deep
Hagfish have horny dental plates which rasp and tear into soft flesh, carrying pieces back into the mouth. A fang above the plates holds the live prey in place while it is shredded. Since they have no teeth hagfish cannot eat scaly fish and therefore they only feed on small live fish, on soft rotting carcasses or on animals that other animals have already opened. When larger food items are found, such as dead whales, hagfish have another strategy – they enter the giant corpse and eat the soft tissue out from within.
Hagfish play a vital role in recycling dead animals on the seabed and may occur at surprisingly high densities, with some areas having over 50 000 animals per square kilometre.
Box jelly
Box jellies are found off the west coast of South Africa and are often encountered in swarms by scuba divers.
Moon jelly
Named for their ghostly, transparent bells, moon jellies have short tentacles that are armed with stinging cells or nematocysts. Fortunately, their sting is not as toxic as that of other jellies.
Longsnout pipefish
The longsnout pipefish (Syngnathus acus) is found throughout South African waters. It occurs in the waters off southern Africa from Walvis Bay to the Thukela Bank on the Kwa-Zulu Natal coast.
Plankton
Life depends on plankton. Plankton is made up of microscopic plants (phytoplankton) and animals (zooplankton). Zooplankton feed on phytoplankton and drift with the currents.
Pearly butterflyfish
Pearly butterflyfish have very distinct colouration - silver-white bodies, yellow hindquarters and black chevron stripes pointing towards their heads.They inhabit sea-facing reefs off the east coast of Southern Africa, where they hunt small invertebrates and scavenge scraps of seaweed.The IUCN status is Least Concern.Pyjama catshark
Some sharks are ahead of the trend when it comes to comfort—living in their pyjamas! Meet the pyjama catshark, a nocturnal creature that spends most of the day lounging in caves or crevices, catching some z's. And with those signature pyjama stripes; it’s no wonder they’re all about napping in style!
Semicircle angelfish
The semicircle angelfish is a narrow, oblong fish with a greenish-yellow or yellow-brown body covered in dark blue spots everywhere excepts its face and pectoral fins. It has a vivid blue margin on its fins, gill covers and eye. Juveniles are black with white, semi-circular lines radiating out from its tail - and from this pattern it gets its name. In adult semicircle angelfish, both the dorsal and anal fins are tailed by bright blue or yellow filaments.Semicircle angelfish are solitary, inhabiting coral reefs in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. They hunt various small zooplankton. Juveniles are found in rock pools and in the waters of the Agulhas current.Red stumpnose
Red stumpnose are endemic off South Africa and occur from False Bay to Margate, although they are more common south of East London.
They have steep foreheads which, in males, become increasingly pronounced and bulbous as they get older. They have strong molars which they use to crush prey such as redbait, urchins, octopuses and crabs.
Although red stumpnose are good to eat, they have been over-exploited. Presently they may only be caught once they have reached a minimum size of 30cm and anglers may only catch one fish per person per day.
Red stumpnose are currently listed as a Red species on SASSI’s Customer Seafood List, which means you should not buy or sell these fish as seafood.
Photograph by Dagny Warmerdam.
Sand steenbras
These fish use camouflage to mimic the ripple patterns in the sand caused by currents and tides.
They feed mainly on bottom-dwelling animals e.g. cracker shrimps, sea lice and molluscs.
Roman
Romans are an endemic species found on rocky reefs off southern Africa at depths from 5m to 100m.
Like other sea breams, the roman has the ability to change sex, in this instance from female to male.
The male attracts a harem of females, with which he will mate. A large male is very aggressive and will defend his harem and territory against all intruders, including competitive males.
His frantic protective behaviour attracts the attention of predators, which increases his risk of being eaten.
Should this happen, the dominant female will immediately take over his role. Sex change takes a little longer.
Pencilled surgeon
There are 51 species of surgeon fish, 19 of which occur in southern African waters.
Surgeon fish are so named because of the scalpel-like spines on either side of their tail fins, which are folded into a groove when not in use.
When surgeons are threatened or alarmed, they lift their scalpel spines, using them to slash at their attackers! They also use the spines to wedge themselves into cracks in the reef.
The pencilled surgeon has a single fixed spine on each side of the base of its caudal fin, which is used in defense or when fighting.
Adults live in caves on reefs at depths of up to 100m, or in open water around sea mounts and islands.
The juveniles are found in estuaries where they graze on algae-covered rocks.