Red Indianfish
It is pretty obvious why Red Indian fish were given their name. These rare and strange looking fish are native Australians – they’re found nowhere else on the planet.
There are a few tribes in Sydney and the fish pictured here is from a particularly notorious one near Maroubra.
Red indianfish fall into the unsporty group of fish, that bizarrely, never learnt to swim properly. Instead they sit around all day long trying to blend in with sponges. This may seem like a great strategy as they look like a sponge, however there’s a problem with their plan. Unlike poisonous sponges, red indianfish get covered in algae when they sit around and do nothing all day and soon they don’t look like a sponge anymore. To avoid standing out and ending up getting munched, red indianfish have developed special ‘rattlesnake powers’ – the ability to shed their complete skin in one go and reappear with youthful spongy good looks. Brilliant... you can’t make this stuff up.