PNW Rock Sculpins

I got 5 of these sculpins on the coast near Ecola St park this weekend. 3 of them are dark mottled colors like rocks, 2 are neon green like the algae they were caught in. Anyone know if the colors will fade with no algae to hide in? Anyone know what species I'm referring to?

I swear I'll post pics when I get home ; )

"dark mottled colors "

staghorn sculpin? These fish can actually take a lot of different colours and patterns. They are a pest to sport fishers, mostly because they are 50% mouth and will swallow any bait any size!

Look Here. It's not the same fish but you get the idea! hehe.

As for the other one, don't have any guess other than simple colour variation. Is colour the only difference you can see?

Here is a picture I found of the mottled ones. I cant get any good pictures from my tank since there is not much light and these guys a only 2-3 inches in a 110 gallon

Apparently the common sculpins in the area are the tidepool sculpin (Oligocottus maculosus) and the fluffy sculpin.

Neat looking fish. I caught some sculpin/blenny that looked similar except it was white and orange.

OK here's the pics of mine I took today......finally

I really like the greenish looking one.

I managed to catch 2 of the green ones. One is tiny, like close to an inch maybe. I felt kinda bad after I got that one in the tank since he was so tiny but he is doing well.

I think I'll feel better about it when they are in the 50 gallon tank since it doesn't have overflows for them to get sucked over I had to cut up an old rio 2500 intake cover to make overflow grates to keep em safe for the time being.

What size tank are they in now? I would think they would be fine in there. Every tank needs it's small fish lol.

They are in a 110 gallon tank, it measures 48x25x25. I would just like to be able to see them and appreciate them more.

Plus I'd like to get larger rockfish for the big tank and they would definitely get eaten.

That would probably present a problem. But if you had enough hiding spaces, etc., i'm sure they would be fine. Of course you might lose one every once in a while.

Last night I fed the sculpins and I saw 2 of them eating like crazy, one other 1 was kind of intersted, and 2 are still hiding out in the rocks.

The bigger green one has a voracious appetite, the little green one I cant find though :'(

I'm sure he's hiding somewhere.

Probably O.snyderi because their colour and yea they do change colour, though only when their background changes, obviously. I agree with Pufferfreak in that I think they would probably be safe from other larger carnivorous fishes: they are almost impossible to spot unless they move when the terrain is right, even to humans sometimes, and they tend to just lay still waiting for an amphipod to swim past, and they are very fast as you probably know.

When described as so, they're behavior seems similar to that of mandarins. With their neon green coloration they certainly seem a match in color.

Nice rock sculpins! Very intruging!

How are the sculpins doing by the way?

They began fighting with each other, even in a 110 gallon there wasn't enough room. Now I have just one left, but he's the toughest one

Goodness .

I think my Spot Prawn ate the last one.....

Doh!

N/M He's still alive, just found himself a nice little hide out until feeding time.......in my overflow.......

As long as he's fine I guess..

Nice sculpins Engineer!
Are they still doing well?

The Tidepool Sculpins in my tank seem to get along well together. No fighting at all so far. Seems like a pretty peaceful species. Only problem is that they ate all of my Brooding Anemones.

Lost the ones pictured, they were just too small for the tank. Got some larger ones this trip though