MAN OF WAR FISH

This striking blue fish, is called the Man-Of-War fish or Blue Bottle Fish, scientific name (Nomeus Gronovii). It is native to the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans.

The remarkable thing about this fish is its ability to live mostly unharmed among the stinging tentacles of the Portuguese Man-Of-War, which is one of its main food sources. The Man-Of-War fish is usually found in the open sea, near its food source and protector, although like the Blue Button Jellyfish and the Blue Dragon sea slug, they do get washed in with strong onshore winds.
This would have been the reason why we had the privilege to view and photograph this amazing species of fish, because the onshore wind had washed them into our rockpools.

The above photo is not the best quality, but it still gives you an idea of their amazing colours. From the research i've done I think this one is a juvenile, because it has dark blue spots with silver and white, the juveniles are pelagic, which means to live in the open sea.
Adults tend to be more of a dark brown to blue black with silver and white, and you are less likely to see them because they are demersal, meaning they are primarily at the bottom of the sea. Their caudal fin has a fork shape.

The Man-Of-War fish can reach a length of 39cm, and adults generally stay at depths of around 200 to 1,000 m. Although this fish is more immune to the Blue Bottle toxin than other fish, it is possible that it can still be stung. It avoids this by using its pectoral fins for swimming, which helps it manoevre in tight spaces and it also has a number of vertebrae which may add to its agility.
Imagine living your life around something that potentially could kill you, but then needing it for your survival, I found this really incredible.

As a family we love taking the time to find interesting things at the beach, and then going home and doing research on them. Because this fish is more of a rare sighting on our beaches, I found it hard to find a great deal of information on them. One of the things I wanted to know is if, because their diet consists of Blue Bottles, they would have the ability to sting humans as the Blue Dragon does, but I found no information answering this question so far.

Photos and writing by white.tiger