{"id":36081,"date":"2024-01-10T06:00:47","date_gmt":"2024-01-10T11:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/?p=36081"},"modified":"2024-01-08T01:16:20","modified_gmt":"2024-01-08T06:16:20","slug":"just-once-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/2024\/01\/just-once-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Just once, part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/needlefish.jpg\" alt=\"pair of redfin needlefish Strongylura notata in Indian River Lagoon, Florida\" width=\"730\" height=\"302\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3000\" \/><br clear=\"all\"\/>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&#8217;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 <em>&#8216;ehhh&#8217;<\/em> 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&#8217;m almost certain these are redfin needlefish (<em>Strongylura notata<\/em>,) and these are not large specimens, somewhere between 15-25 cm in length &#8211; at least, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/2011\/01\/theres-always-a-way\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">original post<\/a> back in 2011, which was only seven or so years after the fact rather than two decades as we are now.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>huge<\/em> 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 &#8211; I don&#8217;t recall how I managed the capture, because they&#8217;re very fast fish, but here we are.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/smallneedlefish.jpg\" alt=\"very small juvenile redfin needlefish Strongylura notata photographed within macro aquarium\" width=\"730\" height=\"337\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3001\" \/><br clear=\"all\"\/>The actual volume within this particular <a href=\"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/Tank\/Macrotank.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">macro aquarium<\/a> was about a deck of cards, so there wasn&#8217;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<strong>:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/needlefishhead.jpg\" alt=\"close crop of head of juvenile redfin needlefish Strongylura notata within macro aquarium\" width=\"730\" height=\"216\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3009\" \/><br clear=\"all\"\/>You can <em>just<\/em> 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<strong>;<\/strong> suffice to say that I wasn&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m long overdue for a trip to Florida, but there&#8217;s nothing imminent right at the moment. I probably should put some effort into scheduling one &#8211; not <em>specifically<\/em> for more photos of redfin needlefish, but I&#8217;ll snag them if the opportunity arises&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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&#8217;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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[95,114,3196,667,666,421,420],"class_list":["post-36081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nature","category-photo","tag-florida","tag-indian-river-lagoon","tag-juvenile","tag-macro-aquarium","tag-macro-tank","tag-redfin-needlefish","tag-strongylura-notata"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36081\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}