Have no clue what moved me to remember this but I was 16 diving Palancar Reef off Cozumel way back, like August 1973 way back. It was an amazing trip, black coral dives on air to 265 ft. deep into O2 toxicity, night dives off the rarely visited windward shore with sharks lurking around and even a new species. This last is what brought me to write this up. I was on a shallow patch reef in about 25 ft. of water. Looked in a crevice under a coral head and just caught a glimpse of something for a second. It reminded me of a strange cross with the body of a Pacific Lionfish (still in the Pacific in those years as far as I knew) with the pectorals of a Queen Angelfish. For some reason I thought, wonder if that was a new species? I had been combing the pages of
Fishes of the Bahamas and Adjacent Tropical Waters by James E. Bohlke over breakfast for months learning the neighborhood residents. Despite that there was something bizarre and distinctly unfamiliar about it. First impressions are sometimes spot on.
From:
http://www.floorcookie.com/cozumel2006/
As it turns out the Cozumel Toadfish or
Sanopus johnsoni was first described a year later in 1974.* Well, can't be too miffed, only saw one and just for a second or so too. Also, didn't learn about the classification until many years later after seeing a photo of the mystery fish complete with Linnaean name. It was a great trip, insane deep blue viz., deep air dives, cavern runs along Palancar out the wazoo. Fun times.
* Collette, B. B. 1974 (22 Oct.) [Ref ID: 5218]
A review of the coral toadfishes of the genus Sanopus with descriptions of two new species from Cozumel Island, Mexico. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington v. 87 (no. 18): 185-204, Pl. 1.