Can you identify this animal?

[2 Bar]

Well, if a lizard fish is a type of sand diver, I guess you're all talking about the same thing. I have never heard of either and never saw one in a picture until I came across this one. So that's pretty cool. It was also my first diving with my housing (5050 + PT-15).

Thanks for the info. Hopefully I'll come across more things I never heard of to share again.

 

[Mike Veitch]

Ok, so i did a little research and it turns out that in the Caribbean people call the Lizard Fish a Sand Diver for some strange reason.
For us in the Pacific a Sand Diver is a perch like fish that you can look at here:
http://www.fishbase.org/Photos/ThumbnailsSummary.cfm?ID=12670

So turns out everyone is right after all :11:

 

[archman]

There isn't just one "Lizard Fish" in the Caribbean, it's an entire Family... the Synodontidae. The Sand Diver is the most common member for the Caribbean basin, but if you kick over to the Gulf coast you start seeing a shift to the Inshore Lizardfish (S. foetens I think). The big nasty "Snakefish" also belongs in this group, but most members' common names go like "______ Lizardfish".

 

[2 Bar]

I don't know if this is relevant. The pics on Mike Veitch's link look like macro shots (I could be wrong). The fish in my picture is about 2 ft long. If I am right, would these still be the same fish?

 

[archman]

I don't know if this is relevant. The pics on Mike Veitch's link look like macro shots (I could be wrong). The fish in my picture is about 2 ft long. If I am right, would these still be the same fish?

Yeah man, some of these suckers can get good-sized. The Humann book lists 18 inch max lengths for sand divers and inshore lizards. Subtracting the 25% magnification error from your air-filled mask, it would match up with the "two foot" specimen you saw.

 

[itziar]

Yeah man, some of these suckers can get good-sized. The Humann book lists 18 inch max lengths for sand divers and inshore lizards. Subtracting the 25% magnification error from your air-filled mask, it would match up with the "two foot" specimen you saw.

I have seen many "2ft" sand divers in the Gulf Coast. They definetely can get very big.