Description
Also known as Common Sand Diver, Filamented Sand Dragon, Intermediate Lizardfish, Sanddiver Lizardfish.
Found singly or in pairs, half buried, or resting on boulders, sandy bottoms and in corridors, of patch reefs.
They feed on cephalopods, benthic crustaceans, and small fish.
Length - 40cm
Depth - 3-300m
Widespread Western Atlantic, Caribbean
Lizardfish are experts at camouflage, they lie in wait for their prey lying on top of the sand or buried with just their heads showing. Their jaws have one or more lines of needle-like teeth.
They grab their victims with lightening speed often taking quite large prey. Ref: https://www.fishbase.se/summary/2720
3 comments
We saw two of these while diving today. One whizzed by me and really surprised me. It was pretty fast. Really neat!
I had no clue what this fish was! I'm a spear fisher and diver, have nailed a few now and they cook up just as good as hogfish! Lots of meat, easy to clean. Bake at 450F x 25min whole and heavily seasoned with Blackening spice, belly down. After 20-25min the skin simply lifts off whole. Re-season, continue to bake another 10min and the fish will flake nicely. *PS: no information found to suggest this is a regulated or endangered species. They move slow when spearing, so easily caught.
i catch the my first fish sand Dragon its about 8 inches long, the place is Naples Florida state i was using shrimp for the bait.