Fish and Ray photos , videos and some identification

We had ten days on La Ropa around Christmas time and got some fish photos and video to share .

We saw many of the same fish as other years and got some new species on film .

Any identifications are possibilities/probabilities and are up for discussions and additions .

I would like to thank Rob for providing a forum like this so anyone with an interest in fish and Zih fish can get lucky with a tag or keyword or even matching photos as we did with some species .

Rays

With a tip from Talley Ho , I am going to call these rays , Cownose Rays , but I'm open to others input . See the link below .

This is a video capture, the videos themselves give a clearer overall impression but the rays were down quite a way off La Perla on La Ropa . All but one Eagle Ray video was off La Ropa and along the south shore to Las Gatas .

We also saw small Manta Rays surfing in the waves and jumping . They are very agile and fast but I saw their horns and large mouth . They might be some other ray but seemed Manta to me .

There is some Manta video as well .

Eagle Ray

Another ray not previously seen or at least remembered and so far unidentified .

And these little guys that likely put the sting in stingray in the area .

We finally got some guitarfish photos and video , or at least that is also my best identification guess from other sources .

The rockmover Wrasses and this Dragon wrasse are also very fast and flit around randomly . They are on all three videos somewhat with some other species overlapping as well .

Rockmover juvenile

These beautiful fish have the interesting name , Moorish Idol .

A school

Cortez Angel

Cortez Wrasse

A King Angel , seen mostly out near the submerged Jesus statue .

One of many octopus encounters .

The small striped fish is a Cortez Wrasse juvenile and the small blue fish is a juvenile Damselfish .

There are many , many Damselfish at many stages of development and colours including Sargeant Majors and the jeweled juveniles and blue on blue and brown on brown guys which are damselfish and likely , Jumbo Mexican Damselfish . See the reference below for more .

Jumbo Mexican Damselfish

A local Boxfish . See the interesting related links.

Another Boxfish which may be a juvenile of the above .

There are also many types of pufferfish both spiny and smooth sided and plenty of each kind and colour from leopard printed and bright yellow to white spotted purple guys like this that may be Guinea Fowl or just a white spotted variety .

Lots of Yellow Tailed Surgeonfish , in the tang family , in clouds of small medium and full grown adults .

Another type of tang with the banded tail , new to me in Zih .

A scrawled filefish hiding even with bright blue dots.

A Damselfish by a local blue coral. The guys at Carlos' Scuba at Las Gatas told me that the coralinas study team had been back and were trying to "transplant" and "propigate" , using my terms , some of the red hard coral at spots outside las Gatas reef, as well as continuing their other study .

Butterfly fish and a blacknosed butterflyfish below .

A good sized Turtle . I don't know the type . Any help is appreciated .

This is a spotted snake eel . I watched one disappear into sand just as easily as if he was going through water . This means a spotted snake eel might be anywhere you choose to put your foot on sand and hopefully some shuffling will at least warn him of your arrival as with the little rays who are often asleep or resting in the sand . I have seen a moray eel do the same thing except for the last two inches of flat tail that remained exposed and confirmed his non snake eel status .

This little guy got right in my face and stayed there from La Ropa to Las Gatas , same as last year .

I wonder if this is a Jack Crevalle ? A few hundred blew by me chasing a few thousand sardines , or what I took for sardines .

The sardines are on this new Youtube video .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWs7sUk5lzE

The rays and bottom dwellers are on this one with a few long segues between species , ending with turtles .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vvqQ4CRpmQ

The more colourful fish are on this video .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSFq8h3YWa0

A lot of all of the videos was shot very near this little jetty where the road to Las Gatas becomes a path . There is a pebble beach to enter just at that point and explore in either direction . Recycled Lady M image .

Some interesting links for more .

Some of the most pertinent fish identification came from sites about the Galapagos Islands and saltwater aquarium sites .

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/galapagos.htm

White spotted puffer King Angel

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/jumbodam.htm

http://www.saltcorner.com/AquariumLibrary/browsespecies.php?CritterID=115

This site has a lot of specimen photos sorted by family and is very useful .

http://www.mexfish.com/mexico/

This example is probably the coolest fish I've seen in the area but not for a few years .

http://www.mexfish.com/mexico/african-pompano/

Two Boxfish links of interest to designers and inteligent designers , seriously clever design is all .

http://glassbox-design.com/2009/spotted-boxfish-at-x2000-magnification/

This link has more about the spectacle of Cownosed Ray migration in the gulf . The rays with the swimmer are Pacific but a similar but different ray . The flyers in the video are also too cool .

http://magazine.tripzilla.com/ray-migration-mexico/17577

There are older Zihua videos on this same channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPAxivw3l9Z8UeHV0gjC79g

With this slideshow showing the most diversity .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vANMuaSdLBE

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Please be happy always