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Birdmouth wrasses are small, elongated fish that display strong sexual dimorphism (males and females look different). Males are vivid blue-green with yellowed fins. Their snouts grow disproportionately long, often with bulbous protrusions. Females are significantly smaller, with comparatively drab colouration. They are yellow-brown with white underparts. Their snouts are also elongated, but more slender than the male’s. Birdmouth wrasses use their elongated snouts, which have small mouths on the end, to prey on small invertebrates in cracks and crevices. They are abundant around Indian Ocean reefs, particularly on the African coast.

This is a large, round urchin with medium length spines that can reach about half its diameter in length. Its body is black, and its spines are purple with a metallic sheen, rarely greenish at the tips. They are easily distinguished from similar species, eg. Needle urchins, by the presence of 5 grey zig-zagging sutures on their upper surface. Multiple generations of pot-hole urchin slowly excavate caves for themselves – hence their name. This multi-generational behaviour has resulted in pot-hole urchins having a patch distribution, occurring in huge numbers where they have been able to dig these excavations, eg. The Philippines and Sri Lanka, but rarer in other parts of the Indo-Pacific. They emerge from these hiding spots at night to catch scraps of floating algae.

Short-spined urchins are large, well-rounded sea urchins, completely covered in short, white spines. Long tube-feet extend well beyond their spines.They inhabit beds of seaweed, where they use their tiny tube-feet to camouflage themselves by holding straps of seaweed, rocks or other debris over their bodies (as pictured). This behaviour gives them their international name of “collector urchin”.Short-spined urchins are opportunistic feeders, and feed voraciously on algae, seagrass and bacterial mats. Their behaviour is unaffected by the day-night cycle, and this is unusual amongst urchin species. This unusual behaviour has made short-spined urchins useful for rehabilitating coral reefs which have been infested by alien seaweed species.These urchins are nutritious and edible – regularly preyed upon by humans, octopuses and puffer fish.

The Cape knifejaw is a dark, oval shaped fish that can grow to almost a meter in length. Their colouration is generally a dark grey, with lighter coloured mouths and underparts. Juvenile Cape knifejaws are bright yellow, with black, vertical bands over their eye and in front of their tail. The knifejaw’s teeth are fused to form a beak-like structure. They are omnivores and feed on a variety of food sources around near-shore reefs. Their beak is used to break up sea squirts, sponges and red algae. Cape knifejaws become territorial when they mature and form pairs that hunt together. The Cape knifejaw is endemic to South Africa, ranging from False Bay to Thukela. Cape knifejaws are on the SASSI Red list.

The Jacopever is a distinctive fish, its colour is highly variable, usually with pink-red blotches and irregular dark patches that form excellent camouflage in deep water. Their short, but stock bodies are protected by sharp spines along their dorsal fins and pectoral fins. It is an ambush predator that uses its cryptic colouration and the darkness of the depths at which it lives to ambush smaller fish and invertebrates that swim past it. Its spines contain venom that is used to protect the jacopever from larger predators. Venom is known to be harmful to humans. This fish lives at great depths on sandy continental slopes, ranging from 50m to over 1km in water depth. Jacopevers are widely distributed throughout the Atlantic, ranging from South Africa to Venezuaela, Iceland and the Mediterranean Sea. The jacopever is listed as Least Concern by the IUCN. Due to its procurement as bycatch of unsustainable trawling methods, this is a SASSI Red listed species in South Africa and should not be eaten.

The baardman, sometimes called the slender baardman, is a dark brown fish, with a curved dorsal fin and short barb on the bottom of its chin. As a juvenile it displays large white patches on its dorsal surface that darken with age. The baardman hunts invertebrates, such as polychaete, worms on sandy sea floors. The baardman inhabits the western Indian Ocean, feeding on ocean-floor invertebrates. It is a resident species, rarely venturing far from its home territory – it often establishes a home cave in limestone or sandstone reefs. The baardman is on the WWF SASSI Red list.