Encyclopedia9 min read
Decorator Crabs: Walking Gardens of the Kelp Reef
Decorator crabs build living costumes from algae, sponges and anemones using velcro-like hairs. How the disguise works, why it evolved and where to see it.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
#camouflage
21 articles
Encyclopedia7 min read
Giant Kelpfish (Heterostichus rostratus): The Shape-Shifting Kelp Mimic
The giant kelpfish changes colour to vanish among kelp blades. Identification, camouflage, behaviour and life cycle of this Southern California clinid.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Encyclopedia8 min read
Grass Rockfish: The Kelp Bed's Stealth Hunter
Meet the grass rockfish (Sebastes rastrelliger): a shallow-water ambush predator that barely leaves home — and pays for that loyalty when the pressure comes.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Encyclopedia7 min read
Grunt Sculpin: The Fish That Walks on Its Fins and Hides in Barnacles
The grunt sculpin is a thumb-sized fish that walks on its fin rays, hides inside empty barnacle shells and, it seems, impersonates the barnacle itself.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Encyclopedia8 min read
Red Irish Lord: The Sculpin With a Face Only a Reef Could Love
Red Irish lords are mottled, spiny, glued-to-the-rock sculpins that vanish against red algae and barnacles — a masterclass in benthic camouflage.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Encyclopedia8 min read
Red Sponge Dorid (Rostanga pulchra): The Nudibranch That Matches Its Dinner
The red sponge dorid (Rostanga pulchra) lives, feeds and hides on one red sponge — a thumbprint-size lesson in camouflage every tidepooler can find.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Encyclopedia9 min read
Saddleback Gunnel (Pholis ornata): The Eel-Lookalike of the Kelp Fringe
Meet the saddleback gunnel — the saddle-marked, eel-shaped shore fish of Pacific kelp edges, and how to tell it from true eels and its gunnel relatives.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Encyclopedia7 min read
Pacific Spiny Lumpsucker: The Ping-Pong Ball with a Suction Cup
The Pacific spiny lumpsucker is a walnut-sized armoured fish that clamps to kelp and eelgrass with a suction-disc belly. Biology, range, where to look.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Encyclopedia7 min read
Coralline Sculpin (Artedius corallinus): A Master of Pink Camouflage
Identify the coralline sculpin — the small California reef fish whose pink-and-grey skin lets it vanish against crusts of coralline algae.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Encyclopedia8 min read
East Pacific Red Octopus: The Kelp Forest's Small Strategist
East Pacific red octopus Octopus rubescens: den middens, colour-flash camouflage, egg brooding and night hunting in California's kelp forests.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Encyclopedia6 min read
Rockweed Gunnel: The Fish That Turns Into Rockweed
The rockweed gunnel is a slender Pacific shore fish so perfectly matched to seaweed butter and olive tones that it looks like the rockweed itself.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Encyclopedia7 min read
Spotted Kelpfish (Gibbonsia elegans): A Master of Disguise in the Canopy
Red in red algae, green in surfgrass, spotted all over — the spotted kelpfish rewrites its own wardrobe to match the kelp it hides in. How to know one.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Encyclopedia6 min read
Umbrella Crab: Kelp's Shape-Shifting Hermit of the Canopy
The umbrella crab hides its legs beneath a flared, kelp-coloured carapace, drifting undetected across the holdfasts and rocky floors of Pacific kelp forests.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Encyclopedia7 min read
Leafy Seadragon (Phycodurus eques): Species Profile
The leafy seadragon is the most perfectly disguised fish in the sea. Explore its South Australian strongholds, brooding males and fragile future.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Encyclopedia9 min read
Bay Pipefish: The Grass Blade That Hunts
Meet the bay pipefish, the Pacific coast's eelgrass mimic — a seahorse relative that hunts like a drifting grass blade from Alaska to Baja.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Encyclopedia9 min read
Sharpnose Crab (Scyra acutifrons): The Decorator That Gardens Its Own Back
Meet the sharpnose crab — a small Pacific spider crab that plants living algae on hooked hairs across its shell. How the disguise works and where to find it.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Encyclopedia7 min read
Crevice Kelpfish (Gibbonsia montereyensis): The Shape-Shifter of the Holdfasts
The crevice kelpfish can turn from red to brown to match the algae it hides in. Meet the small, coiled shape-shifter living inside the kelp forest's foundations.
Dr. Elias Brandt ·
Encyclopedia8 min read
Mosshead Warbonnet: The Eel-Like Hider of Rocky Reefs
The mosshead warbonnet is a moss-fringed, eel-like prickleback of North Pacific reefs — a shy, hole-loving specialist of kelp-bed cracks and crevices.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Encyclopedia11 min read
Penpoint Gunnel: The Green Eel-That-Isn't of the Kelp Beds
Meet the penpoint gunnel — an eel-shaped Pacific shore fish that changes colour with its seaweed and guards eggs in a ball under the rocks.
Dr. Mara Ellison ·
Encyclopedia8 min read
Scalyhead Sculpin: The Little Fish with the Fancy Headwear
The scalyhead sculpin is a tassel-headed, fully scaled cottid of Pacific kelp beds — a small ambush hunter whose males turn crimson over guarded egg masses.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·
Encyclopedia8 min read
Brown Irish Lord: The Red-Bellied Sculpin of Cold Reefs
The brown Irish lord is a spiny, red-bellied sculpin of North Pacific reefs — a camouflaged ambush hunter of crabs and shrimps from Alaska to California.
Dr. Theo Nakamura ·