What is a paperfish bug?

Answer 1

These well-camouflaged, leaf-like creatures come in several colours and shed their skin regularly.

Having seen three variations of paperfish (Taenianotus triacanthus) yesterday on Ribbon Reef, in South Africa's Sodwana Bay, we decided to dive on Bikini Reef this morning.

Bikini Reef is known to host a bright pink variety of paperfish.

The current was moving gently towards the south, but once we had dropped into the little amphitheatre of coral that exists as the focal point of the Bikini dive, we were quite stationary and could work almost unaffected.

I found a miniature cave, and spent the entire dive captivated and entertained by the community that colonises this little corner.

The first thing my eyes settled on was a pair of bright pink paperfish - exactly what we had set out to find. The pink variety is much more striking than those on Ribbon, and one wonders what benefit this colour is to these creatures.

The white 'scales' that hang off the skin of the paperfish are old, dead skin. Twice a month, these fish actually shed their skin, like reptiles do.

The eye of the paperfish is like Mercury, a highly reflective little mirror which picks up the colour of their bodies.

Just above the paperfish was a cleaner shrimp (Stenopus hispidus), peering out from its leafy abode. Just below that was a pair of porcelain crabs (Petrolisthes lamarckii) which were busy inside an anemone, sifting plankton from the water. These little crustaceans are not true crabs but are related to the lobster.

A juvenile starry or yellow-mouthed moray (Gymnothorax nudivomer) was protruding from behind an anemone and periodically snapping at the water.