Last Update : Sunday 25 November, 2001 7:12 PM
Last Update : Sunday 25 November, 2001 7:12 PM |
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| Illust : Anuwat Saisaeng |
| Seamoth | |
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Scientific name |
Eurypegasus sp. |
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Common name |
Seamoth or Pegasus fish |
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Size |
10 centimeters |
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Dispersion |
Gulf of Thailand. Very little report in the Andaman Sea. |
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Area found |
On the floor. Usually stays on the sand floor out of the coral reef. |
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Depth |
3 – 15 meters |
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Feed on |
Plankton and small animals on the floor surface. |
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Situation |
Not conclusive. There are finding reports in Pattaya and Chumporn. |
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Conservation |
Do not catch him. This is very good already. |
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Fish Tip |
You can meet him, just going to take a diving test at Pattaya. |
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Pegasus fish has just made it up the popular list in only the past few years, despite the fact that he has been in Thailand a long time ago. I met him since I was a college student collecting samples. But lately I had not seen him often, until one day I went for a dive around Chumporn province. I got down to shallow water reef. Just off the reef about 6 – 7 meters deep, I met him swimming above the sand floor. That was lucky because they normally look for food at night. During the day they inlay very still in the sand. It is difficult to notice him.
Pegasus fish is in Family Pegasidae. There are 2 genera, 5 species of them. All are small. The differences are mouth shapes i.e., short, long, pipe etc. The flat scales indicate the same origin as sea horse and ghost pipefish. The interesting point is that pegasus fish shed the outer part of his scale layer by layer, to prevent some kind of benthic animals.
Having read this far, you might be puzzled. I would like to explain that several types of fish stays very still, so still that tiny seaweed or hydroid come to plant themselves on the fish and grow up. Those fish get the benefit of being camouflaged like frog fish or some kind of scorpion fish. Other types of fish do not like it. So, they develop a way to get rid of those tiny animals.
According to the report, night divers met pegasus fish at Saag and Laan Islands in Pattaya Bay, also Matra Island in Chumporn. I believe they are around without our notice because they live on the sand floor off the coral reef. No one usually swims out to see them except dive master taking his students for a diving lesson. It can be exciting if you see one. Try to observe around if there are more of them. Normally they live in a group of 3 – 4 in the adjacent areas. But they do not pair off until mating season. The male usually swims in circle around the female.
This is just about the story of pegasus fish. Writing about small fishes is not very exciting. Please cast your vote for the larger ones. I have asked them to put “manta” up the voting list.
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