Microsoft Oceans
Pretenders
Pretenders

In the ocean, nothing is ever quite what it seems.

KindOcean science Zone Coral reefKelp & seagrassCoast & tide pools Found in Worldwide

In the undersea environment, it pays to examine the landscape carefully. Those rocks on the bottom or those plants waving in the current could turn out to be something completely different. Make sure that familiar-looking fish is really the one you think it is, and not an impostor. Down here, things are not always as they appear to be.

Explore

Little villains

Little villains

Are you familiar with the cleaner wrasse? This useful fish eats the parasites off of other fish, which become regular customers at the wrasse's "cleaning station." Enter the saber-toothed blenny: it looks identical to the wrasse, right down to the stripe. The blenny posts itself at the station and lures customers by wriggling in a wrasselike dance. But instead of helping out, the saber-toothed blenny first fools the fish into thinking it's going to be cleaned, then bites off a chunk of its flesh!

Animal or vegetable?

Animal or vegetable?

Shrimpfish have devised an ingenious way of hiding from predators at night: they hang upside-down among a sea urchin's spines or among plants. Their striped, skinny bodies and long, toothless snouts are partly transparent, helping them to blend in. Shrimpfish even swim in a vertical position with their heads down. "Hey, we're not fish at all," they seem to be saying!

Fish or flower?

Fish or flower?

Pipefish may be small, but they're capable of all kinds of astounding feats. The male actually manages to get "pregnant" with eggs in a brood pouch and hatches them. The ghost pipefish includes a vanishing act in its bag of tricks!

Green ghostThis fish looks exactly like the algae it likes to live in!
Colorful specterThis ghost pipefish can camouflage itself among marine plants. Can you see it?
Fake rocks

Fake rocks

Some fish have all the nerve! Imagine passing yourself off as a rock—one that's poisonous, no less!

Frog and coralThis brightly colored frogfish camouflages itself to look exactly like the coral or floating gulfweed in which it lives. It even has branchlike growths along its nose and body. It spends most of its life motionless, waiting for opportunities to eat passing fish.
Stone and venomIts appearance is grotesque, and its venom is lethal. What if your life depended on spotting it? The stonefish resembles the rocks of the seabed so much that often only its eyes are visible. Its wonderful camouflage is a hunting trick: the stonefish snaps up unsuspecting fish in its large, powerful mouth.

Watch

Fish or fisherman? — How's the fishing today? Probably pretty good if you're a frogfish with a long lure. How's that again? A fish with a lure? Yes, the frogfish's dorsal fin is like a fishing rod that can "reel in" or "cast out" using special muscles. It fools little fish into falling for the bait, and when they bite, they're pulled straight into the frogfish's mouth!

Dive deeper

What's a Fish?

Source: Microsoft Oceans (1995) CD-ROM. Text liberated from original screen art; images, audio & clips restored from disc. Original media is Microsoft/supplier copyright — non-commercial educational preservation. Credits & Acknowledgements