Australia is home to several unique plant and animal species that are found nowhere else in the world, and the creatures inhabiting it’s oceans are no exception. Meet the Pineapple fish, one of the more unique fishes you will come across while scuba diving along the waters off coastal Queensland, New South Wales, and Western Australia. Named owing to its stunning resemblance to a pineapple, this fish is also known as the knightfish or the coat-of-mail fish, due to the armor-like scales covering its body.
Pineapplefish grow up to 22 cm (8.7 in) long and are covered by several rough scales which are yellow in color and edged in black, adding to its pineapple-like appearance. Found exclusively in parts of Australia, Scuba Divers have typically spotted this fish at around 5-20m and commonly found inhabiting rocky reefs and estuaries.
The most unique physical characteristic of the Pineapplefish apart from its uncanny resemblance to a
pineapple of-course, is that they possesses two tiny light or bioluminescent organs found on either side of the lower jaw that produces a greenish or reddish glow. These organs known as photophores, are a light-emitting organ which appears as luminous spots on various marine animals and are used to attract prey to the fishes mouth to feed on. This unusual feature has also given the Pineapplefish another name to be known by, since its light organs resemble navigation lights on ships: the port-and-starboard light fish. The light in the photopore is produced by bioluminescent bacteria which emit a green glow when the fish is young and becomes a reddish glow as the fish ages. Being nocturnal fish, the Pineapplefish uses its photophres to lure in its favorite prey of small shrimp to its mouth at night which is a useful feature owing to the fact that these fish have small fins and are not very good swimmers.
Pineapplefish are often found in small caves and under ledges where they aggregate in small groups and Divers have found the certain groups of pineapplefish inhabiting the same ledge for several years at a time often upto 7 years. There are several locations along the New South Wales coast that divers can visit and regularly find Pineapplefish hanging out in the same location making the job of searching for these unique fish by underwater photographers and scuba divers relatively easy.
photos from flickr by richard ling, Saspotato,
