That our next entry has only been featured once is no particular surprise, since it was found during my couple of years in Florida and wasn’t common to see then. But while poking around in the Indian River Lagoon, occasionally I would spot a long narrow fish darting away, always a fleeting glimpse, and eventually I managed to get a couple of ‘ehhh’ images of a pair that drew close while I was holding still. The options for fish of that shape and coloration are minimal, so I’m almost certain these are redfin needlefish (Strongylura notata,) and these are not large specimens, somewhere between 15-25 cm in length – at least, according to the original post back in 2011, which was only seven or so years after the fact rather than two decades as we are now.
The huge accomplishment, for me, was somehow capturing a tiny specimen, ~50mm in length, that I was able to bring home and photograph within my macro aquarium – I don’t recall how I managed the capture, because they’re very fast fish, but here we are.
The actual volume within this particular macro aquarium was about a deck of cards, so there wasn’t too much room for the fish to move away from the glass and I could manage to track tight focus halfway decently. This closer crop of the same frame illustrates this reasonably well:
You can just make out the tiny teeth lining those jaws, and only because I sharpened the image slightly for web display. That eye is in the realm of 1mm in diameter, so you can calculate the size of the teeth yourself; suffice to say that I wasn’t concerned about putting my hand in there. Hell, I have a stingray barb, taken from a dead specimen, that is about the same size and shape as my model here.
I’m long overdue for a trip to Florida, but there’s nothing imminent right at the moment. I probably should put some effort into scheduling one – not specifically for more photos of redfin needlefish, but I’ll snag them if the opportunity arises…