Beautiful Cyrene 6 - Mr Stonefish (in abandoned trap)

Beautiful Cyrene - Mr Stonefish from BeachBum on Vimeo.

Synanceja horrida
With a name like 'horrida', one can only imagine the terror this fish inflicts. This one was about 25cm long and was sitting in an abandoned fish cage. Actually, it was mostly out of water already as the tide was very low. Surprising that it did not make much effort to move into deeper water. I had actually thought it was a piece of stone but then wondered what a piece of rock was doing in a fish trap. Upon closer inspection, I saw it was a stonefish. And although it was mostly out of water due to the low tide, it was very much alive. I moved the entire fishtrap towards a deeper pool which you see in the videoclip. It's underside was a reddish orange although the topside was the colour of brown mud. It did not flinch one bit whilst I was moving the cage...it just sat still and quiet...like a stone would. No wonder it is so difficult to see in the shallows or amongst rocks.

This stonefish is seen in a long abandoned fishtrap on Cyrene reef with a background of the petrochemical industries on Jurong Island. Abandoned fishtraps are a danger to marine organisms as they continue to trap and kill indiscriminately. I widenened the holes in this one to make it impossible for any fish to stay trapped when the tide was up.

Read about the dangers of a Stonefish sting :-
annals.edu.sg/pdf200408/V33N4p515.pdf

Other interesting links :-
habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/guidebooks/marinefish/text/256.htm
http://www.wildsingapore.com.sg/wildfilms/blog/2006/03/when-you-are-down-on-your-luck-keep.html