Visgids Costa Rica

Meest voorkomende vissoorten gevonden in Costa Rica en de oostelijke Stille Oceaan

Vis-identificatie gids

⭐ Meest voorkomende vissoorten in Costa Rica & de Oostelijke Stille Oceaan
⭐ Ideaal voor duikers & studenten om hun visherkenning te verbeteren
⭐ Doe mee aan ons marine-conservatieprogramma in Costa Rica
⭐ Help belangrijke data verzamelen over lokale vispopulaties
⭐ Test je kennis – doe onze visherkenningsquiz!

FISH-ID QUIZ

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1. Disks and Ovals / Colorful

The first category of disk and oval shaped fish are very important to learn. They are colorful, large and very obvious and the three main families that make up the group can be found on almost every dive.

3. Sloping Head / Tapered Body

This third group of “fish-like” fish, are very important to learn. The are common on most dives and are also highly sought after as food fish. It is especially important to monitor these fish to provide data for fisheries management. Snappers can be very difficult to tell apart from the similarly shaped grunts. One helpful hint is to look at their tails. Snappers tend to have straight, flat tails. They are also known for their habit of snapping their mouth open and shut when caught on hook and line. They have very sharp canine teeth that can provide a nasty bite to the unsuspecting angler. Look closely on your next dive and you may see the small teeth protruding from the side of the mouth. Grunts on the other hand, have slightly notched tails. They get their name from the grunting sounds they emit when threatened. These sounds are created by rubbing together bony teeth plates located in the back of the throat. Since the teeth are in the throat, a diver will never see protruding teeth on a grunt, only big blubbery fish lips.

4. Small Ovals / Damselfish

While divers tend to first notice the larger, more obvious fish on a dive, after a short while the challenge to find new species leads them to change their search image to look for smaller, previously unnoticed fish. Generally, the first new species a diver will encounter will belong to the small oval shaped group. This group is broken into the damselfish and their close cousins the chromis. Damsels are like the surgeonfish in that they eat algae. They do not roam around grazing, but rather tend to small algae gardens like a farmer. These areas are guarded fiercely as the algae farm is the damsels food source. For that reason you can think of the damselfish as not just territorial, but Dam- selfish with its territory. Many damselfish have distinctly different colors as juveniles, often being much brighter and more colorful when they are young and becoming drab with age. (much like us humans!) For this reason, the juveniles have been heavily collected for the aquarium trade and are under heavy fishing pressure. As part of the REEF Fish Survey Project, divers are asked to monitor the juveniles and adults separately in two of the damselfish species – the Cortez damselfish and the giant damselfish.

5. Heavy Body / Large Lips

Heavy bodied, large lipped fish belong to the seabass family. We tend to refer to the larger seabasses as groupers and the smaller seabasses as bass or basslets. These fish are extremely important food fish and are under increasing threats from heavy fishing pressures. Monitoring these fish can help provide valuable data to aid in their protection. Most seabasses are hermaphrodites, meaning the same fish will be both a male and a female during its lifetime. The groupers are all born female and later change sex to become male. Most large groupers also congregate each year to spawn at a specific location, making them easy targets for emerging positioning and fishing technology.

6. Swim with Pectorals / Obvious Scales

The fish in this group all use their pectoral fins to swim with rather than the traditional tail swimming of most other fish. The scales are also quite large and obvious. These fish can also be hermaphrodites, like the groupers, with some fish changing sex and others staying the same. Intermediate and adult fish often have very different appearances compared to the always-male terminal phase. This means learning two colors to be able to ID the same species of fish. Most of the pictures shown in this curriculum are terminal phase males, unless noted.

8. Small, Elongated Bottom Dwellers

The small bottom dwelling fish often make up the most interesting fish to watch during your dive. Their approachable nature and interesting behaviors make them great fishwatching finds. Blennies tend to be slightly larger than gobies, but are most easily recognized by their curved body posture and expressive faces. Gobies, though similar in their habitat requirements, tend to sit flat and straight on the bottom. The jawfishes actually live in a burrow in the sand that they excavate and maintain.

11. Eels

Though looking like snakes, eels are fish. There are several different types of eels, and we will look at two – garden eels that live in burrows in the sand and moray eels. Moray eels have a bad reputation mainly due to the constant opening and closing of their sharp toothed mouths. However, this is not a threat to divers, as this action pumps water through their gills. Most eels are actually very shy.

Hoe u deze Gids gebruikt

Duiken en snorkelen geven ons de mogelijkheid om een van de mooiste en meest mysterieuze habitats op aarde te verkennen.

De oostelijke Stille Oceaan is een enorme uitgestrektheid van mariene wonderen, vol met een ongelooflijke diversiteit aan zeeleven. Een van de meest fascinerende aspecten van dit ecosysteem is de reeks visfamilies die de wateren bewonen. Onder de talrijke visfamilies in de oostelijke Stille Oceaan valt Costa Rica op als een bijzonder rijke en diverse hotspot.

De vulkanische rotsachtige kustlijn en eilanden voor de kust herbergen een opmerkelijke reeks soorten die zich hebben aangepast aan verschillende niches en habitats. Deze gids voor het identificeren van vissen helpt u bij het onderzoeken van enkele van de meest voorkomende visfamilies in de oostelijke Stille Oceaan.

Voor uw gemak is deze visgids onderverdeeld in 12 categorieën, gebaseerd op gemeenschappelijke kenmerken van visfamilies, zoals grootte, vorm, kleur, gedrag en markeringen. Bestudeer elk van de categorieën en leer veel voorkomende vissoorten en hun families te identificeren.

Als u van visidentificatie houdt, raden we u ten zeerste aan om deel te nemen aan ons Marine Conservation-programma en ons te helpen de vispopulaties te monitoren en bij te dragen aan de wetenschap en het natuurbehoud in Costa Rica!

Marine Conservatie Programma in Costa Rica

Duik op de beste duikplekken in Costa Rica met tropische vissen, schildpadden, adelaarsroggen en rifhaaien terwijl je bijdraagt aan vitale inspanningen voor natuurbehoud.

⭐ Ontdek Costa Rica’s ongerepte duikfrontier
⭐ Praktijkgerichte mariene-conservatie & certificeringen
⭐ Werk samen met duikprofessionals & lokale NGO’s
⭐ Draag actief bij aan oceaanbescherming
⭐ Programma’s van 1–4 weken & Eco Divemaster-traject

LEES VERDER

Visgids Costa Rica

Meest voorkomende vissoorten gevonden in Costa Rica en de oostelijke Stille Oceaan

Vis-identificatie gids

Kies een viscategorie

Hoe u deze Gids gebruikt

Marine Conservatie Programma in Costa Rica

info@richcoastdiving.com

+ 506 8610 0914

Playas del Coco, Hoofdstraat 151
Guanacaste, Costa Rica