Bubbles from the Naturalist Jerry's tank - by Jerry Ligon

In February, 2004, one of Bonaire Dive and Adventure's instructors, Ilse, while conducting a student on a training dive in shallow water just to the south of our pier, came across a weird fish that she noticed moving along the bottom on legs that made it look more like a "duck" than anything else. Asking questions about what it might be with naturalist, Jerry Ligon, it was determined, by her description that it could be nothing other than a Shortnose Batfish. Since that initial sighting, it has become a mainstay for local divers and even many outsiders who have heard about it who are staying at other dive centers, and come to our pier asking questions about where it could be found. It is very difficult to find in the coral rubble and open sandy bottom, and one must be patient in looking for it. It is about 4-5 inches in length and from the surface its dorsal surface looks exactly like a piece of coral rubble. Adults can be as large as 15 inches, and keeping up with this juvenile is quite a chore, and a frequent question after divers have come in from a dive, is "Did you see the batfish?" We have gone through as long as one week without anyone finding it, then it appears off to one side of its normal site, and we all sigh a sigh of relief that it is still present.

It feeds by using a lure, not unlike another Bari specialty, the Longlure Frogfish, and like the frogfish, it has no gill openings on the cheek that would scare small fish away as it is luring whenever it has to breathe. Instead, and also like frogfish, it has a small muscular chamber tucked, out-of-sight on the rear of the fish near the back fins, thus allowing these two species to continue normal breathing while luring. A close inspection will reveal the opening and closing of this breathing tube.

The batfish has rear legs that makes it look like the feet of a duck and the front legs are tucked up under its head and reminds one of legs of a tripod upon which it uses to move in a strange motion along the bottom. It has ruby-red lips and a short nose with many tiny ciri on the tip. The lips are curved downward, giving it a "woebegone" or look of perpetual sadness.

It's chimeric characteristics makes it quite unique, but more unique is its rarity on Bonaire. REEF surveyors report seeing it at a frequency of .01 % which means approximately 1 survey in 10,000 surveys. It has the distinction of being the rarest fish that has been a visitor to Bari. Bari Reef is known as the # 1 dive site in fish diversity in the entire Atlantic-Caribbean area, and rare fish are expected to drop in and excite all of us who are interested in keeping data on the fish life in this special place.

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