Lots of Life on the Water
August 16, 2008 · Filed Under Articles
Today was out fishing and saw several cool things. I got out at about 2:30pm to a ripping outgoing tide. Fished the pass for about 4 hours. Not too much for me to show but was able to catch some cool photos of tailing snook and some caught hogfish! Also saw a red grouper caught. I managed a couple snapper and a gag grouper. Click on this article and check out the pics below.
Just a quick comment about the hogfish (Lachnolaimus maximus). They are a very tasty fish, sometimes called a “Hog Snapper”. They aren’t actually members of the snapper family (Lutjanidae) though! Instead, they are members of the wrasse family (Labridae).
The fish you are looking at in the picture is a female… How do I know? Did I peak up her little fishy skirt? No… yuck… In fact, the hogfish, as well as most of the wrasse family, are what is known as “protogynous”, or “first female”. This family of fishes is what is known as “consecutively hermaphroditic”. In other words, these fish start out life as a female and then when they reach a certain size they become male (The other version of this are the “protandrous” fishes, which start out life as a male and become females, like the snook.) The fish pictured is very classically the female look of the hogfish. Once they become male they look entirely different! Check here for a look at the male version. http://www.florida-dive-charters.com/17hog.png Check out that big mouth! In the past, this huge sexual dimorphism was cause for confusion and led many to classify the two sexes as different species! This is simply an amazing fish…
You really typed in ‘fishy skirt.’ FAIL!!!
Oh you loved it. You know you did…