Albino Rockfish

[troublesomemermaid]

Hey Folks,
This is my first post here, so pardon my newness seeping through the computer screen :-). I did a dive a few weeks ago at Being Creek Reef. I saw a rockfish that looked odd to me, and I am wondering if it rings a bell to anyone. The best way I know how to describe it is as an Albino rockfish.....

Unfortunately I don't yet know how to take pictures underwater of things that move :-), so I have no proof, but here is what I saw.

It was right next to a Copper Rockfish and a plumose anemone. It had the same shape as the Copper, but it was basically white. It had no markings that I recognize from Janna's basic or advanced fish ID class, or anything I can find in Coastal Fish ID or Coastal Fishes of the PNW. I didn't have a chance to shine a light on it, but the viz was good. It was the size of a normal adult Copper....

Has anyone seen such a thing? Do they transition between markings or colorations ever going really light in the middle? I know juveniles have different colors than adult in some of the species

Thanks in advance.

[Dusty2]

First welcome to our fun site!

Now for the question.... Janna or Greg are better trained to answer this but my observations so far have been that many of our fishes have the ability to change colors to suite their environment but I have never seen or heard of a member of the scorpion fish family (Rock fish) doing it. If it were an albino it would be pretty rare. To bad you didn't get a photo. Even a poor one would help ID it.

As I said I am by far not an expert so lets see what Greg has to say.

[nwscubamom]

Welcome!!

That sounds very cool, actually! And yes, Albino critters show up from time to time here and there.

I don't know of Rockfish changing colors, (like sculpins do). Was it stark white, white? Or more like a tannish color? Bocaccio can be quite light. And there are several deep water Rockfish that can be very light too...but doubtful you'd see them on Boeing reef.

Wish we had a photo - that would be neat!

- Janna

[dwashbur]

We all need to rally around this new member and help her get started taking pictures, because it sounds like she's seeing some cool stuff!

[CaptnJack]

Some spp. of rockfish to change color. The blues and blacks in the Dome at the Aquarium are often quite white in the morning and darken up as the day goes on. Unless your mystery fish had a pink eye (no pigment at all) it was very likely a light version of a blue or possibly a copper.

[nwscubamom]

Aquarium Rockfish colors are, from my observations, different from those in the wild. The colors are often washed out and very faded and I think it has to do with how long they've been in captivity. China Rockfish and Canaries seem to be especially susceptible to this. I'm not sure why that is, but it's just something I've noticed.

Richard, that's interesting (and cool!) that you've seen a change in coloring from morning to evening with them.

- Janna

[CaptnJack]

Yeah alot of the rockfish get kinda faded, while the dogfish actually "tan". Since the dome is only 18ft deep and open on top, alot of the fish are getting alot more UV light than they'd normally be exposed to.

But the whitish to darker behavior for the blues and blacks is actually fairly routine. I'm a AM cleaning diver, so I get to see them at ~8-8:30 and then as I'm leaving around 11:30. Off the top of my head, I would guess 60% of those individuals go through this diurnal change. Its most noticable in winter. By 8:30 in the summer they have already darkened up a fair amount.

Cheers,
Richard

[troublesomemermaid]

Thank you guys for the replies. I unfortunately don't recall the eye color, my buddies were less engrossed in this particular fish so I had to stop staring at it sooner than I would have like. That settles it though, next week I dig my camera out and start really taking UW pictures!!

I did find this though: http://emeralddiving.com/id_rockfish.html
The third picture down has a really light blue rockfish, which is really cool and interesting, but it looks nothing like what I saw.
My mystery fish had a very upright dorsal fin, and a copper rockfish like face.

To answer your question Janna it was a pretty white, no blue tints that I could see.
For now I will chock it up to a mystery fish and have to go back and find it again.... this time with a camera so I can have proof!

Thanks again for the info. That is very cool about some changing color. Do you think the aquarium ones will feel self conscious if I sit all day and stare at them :-)?

[CaptnJack]

The one Keith lists as "albino" is not a true albino but it sure is white! Whiter than most or all of the aquarium fish get. All rockfish can lower their dorsal fin so that's not particularly diagnostic.

[Nwbrewer]

I don't know much about rockfish, but the photo's on that webpage are awesome. Is that guy on the board?

[CaptnJack]

I don't know much about rockfish, but the photo's on that webpage are awesome. Is that guy on the board?

Keith doesn't participate in boards. super nice guy, and very knowledgable about boat sites tho.

[Tubesnout23]

I don't know if having pink eyes can necessarily be associated with albino fish. The albino spotted rat fish that was caught in Puget Sound a while ago did not have pink eyes.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... cture.html

cheers

[CaptnJack]

by formal definition albinos have no pigment
I am not 100% sure if that translates to seeing the blood vessels in/behind their retinas. It should but I may be mistaken.
True albino cave fish have pure white scales/skin and a slight pink hue.