Reticulate Stargazer

Uranoscopus chinensis

Night dives at the Anilao pier feel like something from another world. The sandy bottom comes to life with all the crabs, shrimps, worms, slugs and bottom dwellers doing their brutal routine. Many of these animals feed at night, and the site turns to a large scale battlefield when the sun sets. A stargazer approached us in the midst of the chaos, landed on the sand and burrowed its tapered body, exposing only its big, heavy, flat head and a vertically slanted mouth. He waits for passing fish before jumping upwards while creating a vacuum to suck in the prey.

Anilao, The Philippines