Search

The Cape knifejaw is a dark, oval shaped fish that can grow to almost a meter in length. Their colouration is generally a dark grey, with lighter coloured mouths and underparts. Juvenile Cape knifejaws are bright yellow, with black, vertical bands over their eye and in front of their tail. The knifejaw’s teeth are fused to form a beak-like structure. They are omnivores and feed on a variety of food sources around near-shore reefs. Their beak is used to break up sea squirts, sponges and red algae. Cape knifejaws become territorial when they mature and form pairs that hunt together. The Cape knifejaw is endemic to South Africa, ranging from False Bay to Thukela. Cape knifejaws are on the SASSI Red list.

The Jacopever is a distinctive fish, its colour is highly variable, usually with pink-red blotches and irregular dark patches that form excellent camouflage in deep water. Their short, but stock bodies are protected by sharp spines along their dorsal fins and pectoral fins. It is an ambush predator that uses its cryptic colouration and the darkness of the depths at which it lives to ambush smaller fish and invertebrates that swim past it. Its spines contain venom that is used to protect the jacopever from larger predators. Venom is known to be harmful to humans. This fish lives at great depths on sandy continental slopes, ranging from 50m to over 1km in water depth. Jacopevers are widely distributed throughout the Atlantic, ranging from South Africa to Venezuaela, Iceland and the Mediterranean Sea. The jacopever is listed as Least Concern by the IUCN. Due to its procurement as bycatch of unsustainable trawling methods, this is a SASSI Red listed species in South Africa and should not be eaten.

The baardman, sometimes called the slender baardman, is a dark brown fish, with a curved dorsal fin and short barb on the bottom of its chin. As a juvenile it displays large white patches on its dorsal surface that darken with age. The baardman hunts invertebrates, such as polychaete, worms on sandy sea floors. The baardman inhabits the western Indian Ocean, feeding on ocean-floor invertebrates. It is a resident species, rarely venturing far from its home territory – it often establishes a home cave in limestone or sandstone reefs. The baardman is on the WWF SASSI Red list.

The barred flagtail is a small species, with five characteristic dark stripes on its forked tail that can sometimes be traced across its silver body. It has two small spines on its gill covers which deter some predators from eating it. It is common in the waters of KwaZulu-Natal where it feeds on small crustaceans and small fish. Juvenile flagtails can sometimes be seen in shallow tidal pools. This fish forms tightly packed shoals that regularly travel in lagoons and brackish water. Barred flagtails are classified as Least Concern by the IUCN.

The santer is an oval-shaped fish, with a silver-pink body and poorly defined vertical pink bands on its sides that are particularly indistinct on adults. Its pectoral fins are pale blue. This fish is a predator, hunting smaller fish, crustaceans and squid along the southern African East Coast to the Cape of Good Hope. Santers that are line-caught in South Africa are listed as Orange by WWF-SASSI, while those caught in Mozambique are Red. This species is best avoided while stocks recover.

The white kingfish is a large fish with a silver-grey body that can take on a green tint on the fish’s upper side, and a yellow band that runs along its lateral line. Schools of white kingfish inhabit coastal waters across the Atlantic Ocean – from the United States and Spain to South Africa. It prefers to shoal over reefs, where it spawns during winter. Young white kingfish typically hunt small invertebrates and fish using suction (just like seahorses) The IUCN status of the white kingfish is Least Concern.

The seventy-four is a beautiful fish, with a pinkish head and belly, silver-yellow body and four to six iridescent blue stripes running horizontally across its sides. On each side, above its pectoral fin, is a conspicuous black spot. It is primarily a piscivore, feeding on smaller fish such as sardines and mullet, but will also eat squid and crustaceans if available. Juvenile seventy-fours feed exclusively on tiny invertebrates. Due to overfishing in the 1960s, the seventy-four now faces extinction in the wild. Thanks to a total ban on fishing, and proper management of its ecosystem, its numbers are slowly recovering. The seventy-four is Critically Endangered, the most severe rating on the IUCN Red List. It is also Red on the WWF-SASSI List.

The longfinned batfish has a narrow body and steep forehead, in profile appearing as a large disc. It is usually silver-brown with two black bands; one through the eye, the other through its pectoral fin. Like several other species of fish the batfish is adapted to survive in numerous environments and can change colour, rapidly shifting between a pale silver to a dark brown, and back when threatened. The longfinned batfish lives in a variety of environments, from sheltered bays to deep offshore. It has a tendency to form shoals around objects of interest, particularly shipwrecks. Juvenile batfish typically follow drifting debris in the open ocean, but will form groups as they encounter others of the same species. Found along our eastern coast, the batfish feeds on tiny zooplankton, invertebrates and seaweed.

The garrick is an elongated predator, with a sleek silver-green body and dark fins. Its most notable identifying feature is the downward curving lateral line along its sides. This is straight in most fish. The garrick hunts other fish along our Atlantic coast, but it also follows the annual sardine migration up the coast towards KwaZulu-Natal. The IUCN status of the garrick is least concern. In South Africa however, it is a no-sale species and it is illegal to buy or sell them as per the Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative (SASSI) Red List.

The yellowfin surgeonfish is a beautiful fish that gradually changes colour as it matures. This colour change is so intense, that juveniles and adults were, until recently, classified as different species. The adult yellowfin surgeon is purple-grey in colour with a yellow patch behind each eye and fins that grade from purple, through yellow to transparent. It has small caudal spines. The juvenile has proportionately longer dorsal and anal fins, as well as vivid blue scribbled stripes across its flanks and fins. The yellowfin surgeon is a scavenger that sifts through sand and gravel in the sandy outer areas of reefs. It feeds on food and waste left behind by other fish species. This fish does not choose a mate. Instead, on full moon nights during warm seasons the males will take on different colouration and attract females to large spawning groups. The yellowfin surgeon is common throughout the coral reefs of the Indo-Pacific, extending along the east African coast to South Africa. It generally prefers sheltered bays and lagoons to open ocean. Its IUCN status Least Concern, and its population is regarded as stable.

The comet is a tropical reef-dwelling fish that is characterised by its dark black-brown body which is covered in small white spots. Its large fins can be expanded wide, forming a large oval disc, or pulled in, reducing the comet’s apparent size. Its most striking visual characteristic is the large blue-edged eyespot on its dorsal fin. The comet is a nocturnal predator. During the day it tends to stay hidden in crevasses or under ledges. At night it leaves its hiding places in search of small fish and crustaceans. When it identifies prey, the comet will flare its fins and approach the fish by swimming sideways. Often, the dorsal fin eyespot will confuse the prey into thinking that the comet’s tail is its head. The prey will try to escape “behind” the comet, but will actually be swimming towards its mouth. If a comet is startled or pursued by a larger predator when hunting, it once again uses its tail. The comet will hide its head in a hole, and by flaring its tail it can fool predators into thinking that it is a moray eel’s head, specifically the guineafowl moray (Gymnothorax meleagris). The IUCN status has not yet been assessed.

This bright yellow butterflyfish is easily identifiable by its coloration, its black eye spot and the black bar through its eye. The only pale colouration on the fish is the white tail and transparent tail fin, edged by a thick black stripe. Yellow teardrop butterflyfish live amongst corals and on rocky shores off the east coast of South Africa. It can be seen individually or in monogamous pairs, and prefers to stay in groups when hunting. Like many other butterflyfish, its diet consists of planktonic invertebrates. The IUCN have assessed this species as Least Concern, with stable populations.