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TwitterFish Identification: Sand Diver
Sand divers are an interesting fish. While they can be thought of as a reef fish, you are more likely to see them beside the reef than actually on it.
Physical description
Sand divers are in the lizardfish family and share most of the same characteristics. They have longer, cylindrical shaped bodies. They range in size from 4 – 14 in (10 – 35 cm), although you may occasionally see a larger one.
Their heads resemble that of a lizard, with a wide mouth and prominent eyes. They have a fanned dorsal fin on the middle of their back, and two pectoral fins that usually are on the sea bottom so that they almost look like little legs.
Sand diver bodies have a white / tan base that resembles sand, with dark splotches all over their body that look like ink-blotted rings. This is, no doubt, to hide them in the sand from predators.
Geography and habitat
Sand divers live in tropical and sub-tropical waters across the world.
Sand divers are bottom-dwelling fish. You will usually find them in sand patches that neighbor reefs, often underneath or near a rock or coral for pretection from their rear.
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I'm David Harmon, PADI instructor and all-around scuba enthusiast. I started this site to share with you what I learn as I gain experience, see the world, and become a certified instructor.
December 19th, 2011 at 10:44 pm
During a December 2011 stay at the Coco View dive resort on Roatan, Honduras, we used special lighting to hunt for underwater fluorescence. I was quite surprised when sand divers turned out to be almost totally fluorescent! Here they were hiding, half-buried in the sand, and they glowed like something in a disco. Apparently they didn’t know we could easily see them with our special BlueStar flashlights and yellow visors as they didn’t move away. Made me wonder why nature made them fluorescent. (See my write-up on it all at scubadiverinfo.com/2_underwater_fluorescence.html)
January 23rd, 2012 at 10:11 pm
We spotted one in Cozumel last week and took a couple of shots close up. It displayed an amazing chameleon-like ability to change colours! The fish would scoot away a few feet when we came too close and the coloured bands around the fish would change to near black. After a few seconds undisturbed, the coloured bands would fade to become nearly indistiguishable from the rest of the fish (and a very close match to the coral sand underneath it).
July 14th, 2012 at 12:58 am
On vacation here in Maui, I saw one while swimming in a little rock-wall protected beach called Lianiupoko Beach (near Lahaina). We had a little mesh bag that I was using to try and “catch” fish for my 3-year-old son to see, when I see this little guy, about 8 inches, nestled in the sand near the rocks at the inlet/outlet to the protected beach. I placed the bag in front of him and he swam right in, so I pulled im into a big bucket with some sand at the bottom for us all to get a good look. Totaly an awesome fish, toothy smile and all. After pouring the bucket out right where I found him, he quickly dissappeared in the sandy waters.