Mar 6
the fish that walks
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the fish that walks
I painted a sea toad for the Deep Sea December thing that @montereybayaquarium is doing this month!
Day 2's theme is red, so I looked through a list of red deep sea creatures for inspiration and chose this silly little guy 😊
Hey!! Ignore how it's not cropped lol. Thought I'd get on the Deep Sea December challenge from @montereybayaquarium for a lil' practice warmup :)
Sea Toad (Chaunacops)
A Chaunacops (a genus of bony fish in the sea toad family Chaunacidae) is seen at a depth of 1388.65 meters on Seamount SF2 inside the Nazca-Desventuradas Marine Park.
Image courtesy of Schmidt Ocean Institute
when I say I'm a fish I really mean one of these guys
Like humans, mermaids change a lot as they grow. Some of the most vivid colored species start out as tiny creatures camouflaging into their surroundings.
This Red Sea Toad mermaid started out as a shrinking little thing, but grew into a curious and adventurous adult. It's incredible how different we can become as we age.
Some species of mermaids completely change their environment in different life stages, others shift colors, features, size, even their reproductive sex!
While bodies change according to nature, minds are much more complex. Growth as an individual, personality, preferences, gender, talents and so on; all are determined by the individuals mermaid themselves.
With parallel growth, human and mermaid children who grow up on the edge of each others' worlds can form friendships with each other just as deeply as with their own species. As a backdrop to these relationships, coastal settlements are some of the most diverse cities in the world.
Sea Toad aka Coffinfish (Chaunax suttkusi), family Chaunacidae, order Lophiiformes, photographed in the deep sea (~740 m | 2,428 ft) in the Gulf of Mexico.
There are several species of coffinfish, many do not have distinct common names.
photograph via: NOAA Ocean Exploration