Giant Snailfish Family looking thing..... help!

[troublesomemermaid]

I found a new friend at the Junkpile - at Alki. Please excuse the somewhat blah photos, this was my first dive with my camera where it worked for more than two pictures (story for another time).

I don't recognize this.... any thoughts? My only guess was something in the Snailfish family, but I thought they were little guys and this was pretty big. I might be mistaken about the general sizes.

Found in: 12 feet of water, sitting on the side of one of the little pilings that are there.
Size: ~ a foot long. ~ 4 - 5 inches across.

I couldn't get any pictures of it swimming due to my ineptness as a photographer..... but hopefully these will give a pretty good idea of what it looks like.

[PeninsulaDiver]

My guess: Northern Clingfish

Nice Shot.

-Mark

[Grateful Diver]

Looks like a clingfish ... never saw one that big before ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[Dusty2]

Great shots! You did a great job for ID purposes. Certainly looks like a cling fish but I have not seen a solid color one like that. Hopefully Greg will have the answer.

[Greg Jensen]

Wow- nice! It's a lobefin snailfish, Liparis greeni. Notice the (duh) lobe on the front of the dorsal fin and the unusually tiny eyes. Also the size narrows it down some too- most don't get anywhere near a foot long.
I'm jealous!

[Dusty2]

Congrats on a great find! Nothing like starting out with a rare find. :smt038 :smt038

[troublesomemermaid]

Thank you for the help, you guys are awesome!! It was so cool looking, and so unfamiliar which is nice for me.

I just looked at the new REEF Fish ID book and there it is, top of the Snailfish page.... I am still working from the old one and the snailfish page got torn out, I shall have to pick up the new edition.

Thank you again. I'll be back next time a fishy perplexes me :-).

[Biodiversity_Guy]

What an excellent find! Thank you for sharing your pictures.

[nwscubamom]

OK, that is just SUPER cool to have a Lobefin shot! I don't know anyone yet of 'the gang' here who has one. That is totally SWEET!!! Congrats on a great bunch of photos.

- Janna