Hi gang, we had a super busy day here at Substation-Curacao yesterday with collage kids from Wilmington and folks that just wanted to go down in the sub. One of my main jobs here is to follow the sub out onto the reef and photograph who ever happens to be inside at the time and send them home with these super cool underwater photos. Most of the time the sub meets me at around 50 feet, I then take a bunch of shots and usually follow them down to around 100. We use an old Nikon D-200 in an IKELITE housing with double strobes for these shots and a D-800 for all the specimen shots and video. While out there yesterday I came across this very hidden Peacock Flounder as you see above, look how well he blends in!! Like so many fish and creatures here in the Caribbean these flounders have the art of disguise down to an art, it’s really amazing! I can’t even tell you how many times I have seen friends and divers swim right over these fish and never spot them and the cool thing is the flounders won’t move unless they are sure they have been spotted. The peacock flounder is also called flowery flounder because it is covered in superficially flower-like bluish spots. As suggested by the family name, lefteye flounders have both eyes on top of the left hand side of their heads. The eyes are raised up on short stumps like radar dishes, and can move in any direction independent of each other. That feature provides flounders with a wide range of view. One eye can look forward while the other looks backward at the same time. The baby flounders have one eye on each side of their bodies like ordinary fish, and swim like other fishes do, but later on, as they are becoming adult, the right eye moves to the left side, and flounders start to swim sideways, which gives them the ability to settle down flat on the bottom. The maximum length of this flounder is about 45 centimetres (18 in). Peacock flounders are mostly found in shallow water on sandy bottoms. Sometimes they rest over piles of dead corals or bare rock. They may be found as deep as 150 meters (490 ft). As most flounders, the peacock flounder is mainly nocturnal,but is sometimes also active during the day. It hunts for small fishes, crabs and shrimps. Like all flounders, peacock flounders are masters of camouflage. They use cryptic coloration to avoid being detected by both prey and predators. Whenever possible rather than swim they crawl on their fins along the bottom while constantly changing colors and patterns. In a study, peacock flounders demonstrated the ability to change colors in just eight seconds. They were even able to match the pattern of a checkerboard they were placed on. The changing of the colors is an extremely complex and not well understood process. It involves the flounder’s vision and hormones. The flounders match the colors of the surface by releasing different pigments to the surface of the skin cells while leaving some of the cells white by suppressing those pigments. If one of the flounder’s eyes is damaged or covered by sand, the flounders have difficulties in matching their colors to their surroundings. Whenever hunting or hiding from predators, the flounders bury themselves into the sand leaving only the eyes protruding. I found another new Gecko yesterday at my house and got him photographed at work. After that I took him back out to the desert and released him or her back into the wild. Have a great day, Barry MORE: Peacock Flounder, Bothus lunatus, Flounders