I was diving at Second Valley on 15th June when I found this Slender Weed Whiting, Sheardichthys attenuates: –

I have posted two photos of the weed whiting on iNaturalist, including this photo: –

Note that the weed whiting’s snout is pale, giving its head a squared-off appearance. The head is deliberately aligned with the small fragment of dead detrital strapweed, so the whole fish mimics a longer fragment.

(The very small shoots of live seagrass are from a regenerating eel grass rhizome, also aiding this diurnally active fish’s survival overnight. Strands of detrital strapweed are often prevented from movement along the bottom by getting stuck in benthic botany, when the sea is fairly calm, on sheltered/less exposed coasts.)

By David Muirhead

Life member David is a long-serving Secretary of the Marine Life Society of South Australia. He has dived and snorkelled in South Australian waters for around five decades and has a particular interest in bony fishes. He is a diver photographer who loves posting photos from his dives to iNaturalist

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