A Mystery Fish For You To Identify, And Other Stuff

Posted on 3 April 2011 by cromercrox

While walking along the beach this afternoon, Canis croxorum alerted me to this washed-up fish. It’s a pretty common North Sea fish, I believe, though I have never seen one before. Its roe sometimes appears pseudonymously as caviar. Can you identify it? Clue for molecular biologists: it’s not a zebrafish, a puffer fish, a medaka, or a hamster. It’s about 30cm from nose to tail.

In other news; spring has truly sprung in the Jardin Des Girrafes. The pond is literally boiling with hot frog-on-frog action. Captions invited.

The bunnies are at it too, except when distracted with food:

and my overwintering broccoli is coming along nicely.

All of which is a scene setter for a wonderful afternoon spent yesterday with Crox Minor, Messrs M. P., W. P., O. P. and L. S. of Cromer, Ms. E. W. and Mr J. W. of Trimingham and 26,504 other people at Carrow Road, to witness a magnificent return to form for Norwich City FC, in which they squashed bottom-of-table S****horpe six nil. Here is the scene just before the match, from our regular seats at the River End.

The afternoon was warm and sunny, spring was in the air, and the capacity crowd, in party mood, was keenly looking forward to a good kickaround after a long absence of a home fixture – what with several away games and a gap last week for international matches. Quite a few people had come to see City’s new signing Dani Pacheco, a likely lad on loan from Liverpool. Despite manager Paul Lambert’s seeking not to raise expectations, the new kid was in the starting line up, and soon proved his worth, feeding ball after ball to City’s captain and goal machine Grant Holt – and to fellow striker Simeon Jackson, who scored three after a drought that had lasted since October. After a terrific season so far, the Canaries are almost within touching distance of the Premiership. As if in sympathy, our own building, like City, is going up, up, up! (Dog added for scale).

For the first time, we fans traveled to Carrow Road on the Football Special bus from Cromer, lowering the average age of the passengers to 103. The Spring-like mood was summarized on the way home, when, queueing with fellow passengers to alight, a lady of mature years was heard to opine words to the effect of ‘Ah! Many babies will be conceived tonight!’ to which a well-seasoned gent said “What? With us lot? That would be a miracle!’

About cromercrox

Cromercrox is an author of the SF trilogy The Sigil and many other books, and an editor at a well-known science magazine whose opinions aren't necessarily represented on this page. You can visit his capacious backlist at Amazon at amazon.com/author/henrygee

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This entry was posted in Blog Norfolk!, Cromer, Domesticrox, Football and tagged bunnies, erections, hot frog-on-frog action, on the ball city!. Bookmark the permalink.

22 Responses to A Mystery Fish For You To Identify, And Other Stuff

Graham Steel says:

3 April 2011 at 17:59

Me guesses that this might be an escaped ‘Venterfish’ from the JCV Institute ??

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AJ Cann says:

3 April 2011 at 18:13

That, my fecund feind, is Cyclopterus lumpus.

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Graham Steel says:

3 April 2011 at 18:46

e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumpsucker ??

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KristiV says:

3 April 2011 at 21:38

The adhesive pelvic fin adaptation is pretty amazing (that was a comment on the mystery fish, not a caption).

Nothing so exciting as a football match here (couldn’t care less about the college basketball this year). Transferred 300 pounds of potting soil and composted horse manure from the bed of Smaug to the third raised bed garden in the backyard. I’ll have to wait a few months to plant broccoli – today I planted zucchini, cucumber, and cantaloupe seeds, and I should receive seedlings for peppers, eggplants, and tomatoes this week. I’m wondering whether I can keep all three raised beds going and productive year round. It’s already quite warm here, and oak pollen coats everything (including my respiratory tract).

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rpg says:

4 April 2011 at 09:42

But is it a lumpsucker of love?

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cromercrox says:

4 April 2011 at 10:42

Yes, it is indeed a lumpsucker.

@Kristi – my kale’s doing all right, too. Please would you remind me of your interesting kale chips recipe?

@rpg – that link is teh awesomes, as is Ray Troll, who is a big hit in the Maison Des Girrafes.

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ricardipus says:

4 April 2011 at 14:12

Poor, dead lumpsucker (I was going to guess “Stonefish”, which would obviously have been wrong – in my defence, it’s been a long time since I was anywhere near the North Sea).

In agricultural news, it was mild enough on the weekend to trim back various rose, raspberry and blueberry bushes, whack a few overhanging bits off the yew and crabapple trees, and pull last fall’s mums out of the flowerbed. Still too chilly to plant anything though – it snowed again last night, followed by a thunderstorm of biblical proportions, epic rain, and a drizzling of cold, um, er, drizzle this morning.

Spring in southern Ontario. ~~Gotta love it~~ It exists.

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- KristiV says:
  
  4 April 2011 at 18:20
  
  Trade ya. The last few days here have been oppressively warm, humid, windy, and smelly – if you can imagine having to live in a fetid, sweaty, flatulent buttcrack, that’s what it was like here. And now there’s a cold front blowing through, and approximately 10% of West Texas has arrived/is arriving via express air mail. It’s not the nice part of West Texas, either. Shall I go up to the fifth floor and take photos? I might need them for the pulmonologist, when I’m dying from one of those fungal lung infections that are all the rage in the Panhandle.
  
  @ cromercrox: The most difficult part of this baked kale recipe will be converting F to C. First, tear up the kale into bite-sized pieces (not necessary if you grow the miniature varieties, or have access to the young leaves) and rinse well. Allow the kale to dry completely. Put the kale in a large bowl and rub 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil onto all of the pieces, coating thoroughly. Place parchment paper (dunno if that has a different name in the UK) on a baking tray, and lay the kale pieces on top – it’s OK if they overlap a bit. Bake 8-10 minutes at 350F, and do not allow leaves to brown (they will become bitter). 8 minutes is perfect for the small leaves. Mix seasoning of your choice (smoked paprika, ground chipotle, Southwestern seasonings from Penzey’s that I should probably send you, etc.) with equal amount of salt, and sprinkle over baked kale. Eat the whole tray of baked kale and experience little or no guilt. Sometimes that’s my veg with dinner.
  
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  - cromercrox says:
    
    4 April 2011 at 19:57
    
    Yum.
    
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    - cromercrox says:
      
      6 April 2011 at 21:28
      
      Kristi – I tried the kale crisps recipe which was met with general approval at the Maison Des Girrafes. I put too much salt on, though. Plenty of kale left, will try again.
      
      Meanwhile I harvested the first broccoli which went down very well in a stir-fry with onions, ginger and a sweet pepper, served with pasta, a squirt of vietnamese chili sauce called ‘Flying Goose’ and plenty of soy sauce.
      
      Reply
      - cromercrox says:
        
        6 April 2011 at 21:29
        
        … and next week the roof goes on.
      - KristiV says:
        
        6 April 2011 at 23:44
        
        Yes, it’s easy to get them too salty – might adjust the ratio of whatever spices you’re using, if you like them well-seasoned. The kale chips will keep for a day or two in a sealed container, but they’re best right out of the oven. Past couple of nights I’ve stir-fried thin strips of kale and chard with a small amount of bacon, and then served it on a bed of jasmine rice. Tonight I’ll likely just have a green salad.
        
        The broccoli dish sounds great – I’m going to have to wait until fall to try growing broccoli. I favor a Vietnamese chili garlic sauce that has a rooster on the jar (in grad school my housemates just referred to it as “rooster sauce”). Rooster sauce, like Tabasco, is an absolutely essential condiment to have on hand.
Bob O'H says:

4 April 2011 at 17:42

Clue for molecular biologists: it’s not a zebrafish, a puffer fish, a medaka, or a hamster.

From this clue I concluded it was a fruit fly. Or thale cress.

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- Alejandro says:
  
  4 April 2011 at 23:34
  
  No! is a Guinea Pig firefighter camouflaged.
  
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  - ricardipus says:
    
    5 April 2011 at 14:16
    
    Following Bob’s line of reasoning, I had originally thought it might be a C. elegans, but it seems to have rather too many cells. And a backbone. And fins.
    
    It’s the wrong colour, too.
    
    Reply
Alejandro says:

4 April 2011 at 23:42

Cromacrox in relation to the other animals we have a high percentage of abstraction for our construction.

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Steve Caplan says:

5 April 2011 at 03:21

I’ve GOT IT! I know what that fish is. There’s no question–I looked it up, and with Passover coming, it absolutely has to be: Gefilte Fish.

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- cromercrox says:
  
  5 April 2011 at 08:50
  
  Oy! No wonder I find the thought of gefilte fish unappetizing…
  
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Alejandro says:

5 April 2011 at 17:21

I have never seen even bunny go see a football game or building a stadium for such an occasion.

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Graeme Mackreth says:

9 April 2011 at 04:06

Just finished reading “Bad Science”. A good book and worth the read. Thank you for recommending it,

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- cromercrox says:
  
  9 April 2011 at 09:02
  
  You’re welcome.
  
  Reply
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