#planehead filefish

Scrawled filefish (Aluterus scriptus), Fantail filefish (Pervagor spilosoma), Planehead filefish (Stephanolepis hispidus), Orange filefish (Aluterus schoepfii)

Fishes of the World. Written by Hans Hvass. Illustrated by Wilhelm Eigener. Originally published in 1964.

I could be incorrect with my identification, but I believe this is Monacanthus hispidus, the Planehead filefish, another species that often scratches out its living among tangles of Sargassum seaweed. I’ve found a good number of these youngsters over the years — wee babies washed up with the Sargassum along the coastline. As adults, they can grow upwards to around ten or eleven inches in length, but truthfully I’ve only seen them like the one you see here: itty bitty, super duper, wee tiny. I mean, we’re talking a ridiculously wee little fish. Fortunately for this little babe, I found it while it was kicking and flailing about some sargassum. I quickly put the youngster in a small wave pool to catch some quick oxygen and then snagged a few quick shots as I returned it back to the open water. Hopefully, the little tanker is growing steadily to become a slightly more audacious predator of the Atlantic’s floating sargassum tangles!