Striated Frogfish

Image: Silke Baron
Antennarius striatus

Pac-Man was always such a harmless soul, lost in the labyrinth of his own mind, chased by ghostly memories of his past and finding succour in a trail of psychoactive dots and the occasional fruit. He always seemed so happy. Or at least preoccupied.

He was never the same after the werewolf attack. He's so grumpy now. And he's completely abandoned vegetarianism...

Fanfin Angler

Image: Rebikoff-Niggeler Foundation
Caulophryne jordani

SPOTTED: Reclusive Fanfin Angler and her latest beau step out for a romantic lure-lit dinner.

She doesn't appear pleased.

Bony-eared Assfish

Image: Royal BC Museum
Acanthonus armatus

Now, that's just rude.

The Blues VII

Image: Cláudio Dias Timm
Porphyrospiza caerulescens

Uh oh! It's that time of year again when all looks lost, all looks cold, all looks... blue. Blue Monday strikes again. The attic groans under the weight of Christmas decorations already laden with a thin layer of dust. Christmas gifts have lost their lustre and joined the rest of your belongings as mere possessions cluttering your life. And if you don't follow through with your New Year's resolutions this time, you'll have to get a new Christmas jumper to ease over that ever-expanding belly.

But worry not! Or continue worrying, just be sure to do it with friends. Friends like the Blue Finch.

Cornetfish

Image: Rob

A sliver of fish cuts through the tropical darkness like a silver blade, a defiant icicle, or a really long pencil sharpened at both ends.

Seventh Seal of the Hallowe'en Horrors

It's Halloween! That time of year when we eat humble pie with death, eat a whole bottle of bitter pills with darkness and eat lead with evil. Woo!

Twospot Turkeyfish

Image: Maupin Delphine
Dendrochirus biocellatus

It's a fish! It has two spots! And... turkey. Turkey is involved.

Makes perfect sense.

Satanic Devil Fish

I don't know what this actual demon from Hell thinks he's playing at...

Video: oceanexplorergov

But he's fooling no-one.

Fingered Dragonet

Image: Nick Hobgood

Tiny dragons can do a lot with a finger or two!

Deep Sea Dragonfish

Image: Fran Martín de la Sierra

My name is Deep Sea Dragonfish, eater of worlds.

Look on my face, ye Mighty, and despair!

The Blues VI

Image: Bernard DUPONT
Corythaeola cristata

It's Blue Monday! Mathematically proven to be the most depressing day of the year by qualified PR professionals who believe the best way to defeat it is with a holiday package bought from their clients. But there's no defeating it. It looms. It impends. It soon comes to a dark night of the soul near YOU! And there are no holidays from one's own soul.

Handfish

Image: John Turnbull

It's already strange to see a fish who prefers to walk rather than swim...

But to walk on his hands, too? I don't even walk on my hands! And I'm supposed to have hands.

And the Number of the Hallowe'en Horrors is 666

Its Halloween! That time of year when we draw black waters from the well of cosmic truth with death, draw deep breaths of chill, grave-leaden mist with darkness, and draw white, chalk outlines around corpses in the alleyway with evil. Woo!

Behold Death. He's wearing his Loch Ness Monster costume this year. Basically it's a dark green robe, a dark green handle for his scythe and a kind of lizard mask on the blade. It looks great and boy is he committed to the role. We've been trying to get him out of the swimming pool for hours!

Here be Darkness. She's been trying to teach the zombies about the miraculous power of make-up. I don't think it's going too well. Lipstick is supposed to stick to lips, not the other way round. There's bits of face everywhere!

Yonder is Evil. He's dressed up in a long, white robe with a little cardboard halo fixed onto his head with a piece of wire. He does that every year but it's hilarious every time!

Mueller's White Knifefish

Orthosternarchus tamandua

Darkness will do strange things to a body...

Blind Cusk Eel

Humans have never been great at the whole ghost thing. They all look like white bed sheets with black circles for eyes.

Blind Cusk Eels, on the other hand, now they're almost 100% pure ectoplasm!

Jellynose Fish

Image: fishpix.kahaku.go.jp

WARNING: High concentration of gelatinous material in the schnozzle area.

Cusk-eel

Image: NOAA/Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

I'd like to call this thing a "fish-shaped lump of flab" but it's scarcely even fish-shaped!

Snipefish

Image: Oceana in Europe

Schnoz alert!

Kelpfish, Gibbonsia

Image: Chad King

Gibbonsia? Land of the Gibbons?

The Blues V

Image: Hiyashi Haka
Lamprotornis caudatus

It's time for the blues! Either that or I'm a week late... Oh dear. Failure upon failure! Blues upon blues! Well, I guess it makes sense, really. Blues are eternal, after all. Haven't you heard? It's blues all the way down! At least on this page...