11 January 2009

Teasing Toadfish



OK, swimming with Wild Dolphins wasn't the only fun thing I did on Sunday. During the 3rd tank dive at Paradise Reef I also got to tease a Splendid Toadfish out of its hole. You've probably seen my pictures of these ugly/beautiful fish in my photo albums and what you usually see is only the head with its chin tentacles. I'd heard from friends and divemasters that you can tease them out by wiggling something yellow'ish in front of them.

So... today when I came across one and had the video with me, I unhooked my safety sausage (it was the only loose object I had at the time except for my video housing!) and squirmed it in the sand in front of the toadfish. At first it came out a little bit, but then stopped. So, while holding the camera as steady as I could with one hand, grabbed the sausage and teased some more. What you see on the video is the thing coming out of its hole about 3/4 of the way! What great fun!

If you want to see what the whole Splendid Toadfish looks like, just do an image search on that name.

1 comment:

Kathleen said...

The videos are fabulous, my Amazing Race dive buddy! How marvelous it was that you were able to sail and swim with the dolphins. And, of course, now I'll need to pack a new "must" item for mj BC pocket in Cozumel: something yellow so that I can tease a toadfish out of his/her hole - never seen one out and curious. So kool!