C-O Sole?

[coachrenz]

So, I am supposed to be this advanced critter watcher, but, I am having a lot of trouble IDing this particular guy. Spotted him at Seacrest Park Cove 2. I should have been taking pictures of a Six-Gill, but that is a different story.

Any ideas on who he might be?



I swear I didn't doctor the photo. My first thought when I saw him was that some mean fisherman had caught the poor thing and then branded it.

Have you ever seen a more perfect "C" on a fish?

[Diver_Dave]

Would say its a Hornyhead Turbot (Pleuronichthys verticalis) My guess ahe..

[nwscubamom]

Funky C!! It looks like it even has shadowing!!!

But, it's definitely a C-O Sole. Eyes practically falling off the front of its head, large blotch in the center of the body, white edging to the fins...

BTW, the C that the C-O Sole is named for, is the LIGHT colored C that appears on the TAIL - normally the blotch in the center of the body is pretty much an oval black blotch. No C formation to it at all. Just coincidence in this case that it's got somewhat a shape of a C there.

Another giveaway is the white area behind the blotch, towards the tail. Many C-O Soles have this (from my observations, anyway)

Here's an example showing the dark blotch, lighter area, then light C and O on the tail:



- Janna

[Zen Diver]

Have you ever seen a more perfect "C" on a fish?

It kind of looks like a chromosome...

-Valerie

[coachrenz]

I just couldn't resist pretending like I didn't know what it was. I looked through all my pictures of C-O Soles and didn't find even one that had as close to a perfect C on it as this one did.