At first glance, the sea bottom may appear bleak and barren, a forsaken wilderness of sand and stone. Sessile animals apart, a closer look often shows that there is more than meets the eye in the shifting substrate. Fishes of all shapes and sizes have evolved forms and habits that make them at home on the rocks and rippling quartz. Some are flat and lie low, while others mimic mottled outcrops in a game of hide-and-seek with other denizens of the deep. Toadfish wedge themselves into the rubble, pretending to be part of the decor while waiting to feed on unwary foragers. True to their name, the males make audible croaks to attract mates.
They may be as fugly as an ogre or Doris the unevil stepsister, but toadfish are at least less of a threat to life and limb than scorpionfish and stonefish to beachfleas who lack double-layered protection against venomous spines. The defensive features of these and other reef fishes are good reasons for wearing proper footwear (booties or at worst covered shoes and socks) while wading in the shallows and refraining from placing naked hands on every sundry stone-like surface.
On the paler grains, horizontally compressed creatures sit and pray that dabbling ducks do not stomp on their hides. The jaws of crocodilian flatheads are ready to snap up passing prey with lightning speed. Smaller prey such as shrimp are targeted by flatfishes such as this peacock sole, which have chromatographic capabilities that rival cuttlefish. But colours matter not when fishes flat or fat end up on the fryer. The pan is mightier than the sword(fish)....
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