Strike wrote:

> Now this is a strange one!  :-)
>
> In one book, 'Sea Fishes of Southern Australia', the closest looking
> specimen - to what I've been calling a, 'Painted Flathead' - is called a,
> 'Tassel-Snouted Flathead'.

"Thysanophrys cirronasus" (Richardson, 1848).

> Wheras the picture and description in, 'Coastal
> Fishes of South-Eastern Australia' refer to it as a 'Rock Flathead'.  (A
> name and image that, in the first book, looks nothing like the picture and
> certainly doesn't match the description, of the critter in the second book -
> and neither of which have the more elongated snout of the thing that we
> see!!)  :-))))

I don't have the second book, but is the taxonomic name the same? If
not they're obviously not referring to the same species and it's why
taxonomic names are so important when trying to identify a species.

Common names are, but exactly, just that.

Hmmm, I still remember, rather vividly in fact, just bimbling along
immediately to the east of the bridges across the Swansea Channel in
beautiful viz, minding my own business, when the sand immediately in
front of my nose erupted and a fully half metre long (at the time it
seemed at least three metres long) flathead steered its way clear of me.

Having recovered (some considerable time later) from my rather serious
heart attack I recognised it as being a Tiger Flathead
"Neoplatycephalus richardsoni", perhaps named after the guy who named
"cirronasus" above although that's conjecture on my part.

Then Feesh wrote:

> > I'm beginning to get a bit enticed by a 10-minute dive at Shelly in
> > Nov.  :-)  But then, 5 minutes, even with spurts, may not be long
> > enough to get to ANY of those critters. :-)))  Would 10 minutes oneway
> > do it?

to which Strike replied:

> The water will have warmed up a bit by mid-November - honest! :-)))

Feesh ... how do I put it ...

Nah, I'd better not go there. ;-))))

Cheers,

Christian