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Project Noah Nature School
Boleophthamus boddarti
This one's length is about 60.00mm, many others are smaller. This one has bold dark stripes distal to its dorsal fin. In some these markings aren't prominant (3). Some have a dark lateral line also (2). Much has been written about its movement, that it walks on its pectoral fins. But these species move from side to side like snakes (4), only at the last moment before stopping it 'walked' a bit on its pectoral fins, cleaned its eyes and mouth, and finally fanned its dorsal fin. May be all these observations were partly due to the the absence of water on the slushy mud surface. They couldn't stand one another and chased away others vigorously, especially the smaller ones.
Fish were moving on the slushy mud surface. They'd no free water to swim, dip or clean themselves. It's a dark cold cave, no chance of sun-rays falling here. Hardly anything to eat as well. May be the situation will change when the tide changes.
I had to wait for the crowd of tourists to clear the area. They came out soon from their burrows when the place became qiet. There was no chance of taking photos from the ground level because of the slush and quicksand.
Hi Marta, I've added the notes and some more photos, could you check them? Thanks.
Thanks Marta for the ID and the ref, and also for the ref to the funny news item! I'm going to add the notes, as yesterday's got deleted. I consider these species unique as they wouldn't have seen the sun during their lifetime since they're inside a cave, some 100.00m deep, and hardly anything to eat, no wonder they're small.
Spotted on Dec 25, 2015
Submitted on Jan 2, 2016
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