One Sly Fish | What Sam Sees

[Music] oceans are filled with so much wildlife creatures big and small the exotic and beautiful to the wonderfully weird hey it's me Sam wouldn't it be so cool if you could change colors well there's a fish in there that can not only change its colors but acts just like a chameleon and can blend right into the sand see wait he was just there a minute ago he's gone we've got to go see if we can find them come on let's go get suited up and dive down to learn more cool facts about the sand tile fish [Music] [Music] [Music] I'm here at the National Aquarium with senior dive Safety Officer Jackie Cooper [Music] we're diving in the Atlantic coral reef tank to check out the sand tile fish [Music] ready set go [Music] look at all the tropical fish [Music] Jackie says there's nearly 1000 of them in this tank that's a lot of fish [Music] now this is going to be a challenge to find a fish that likes to blend in the sand among all these creatures [Music] maybe if I swim closer to the bottom I might find him in the sand whoa that just moved that rock that's amazing it's got to be the sand tile fish it's long and thin see how it blends and can disappear first it's there then it's not that's a pretty tricky fish let's go up and find out what other cool things the sand tilefish can do that was a sand tilefish it burrows in the sand that's why they call them Santa that is so cool why don't we refer it's a way of building a safe place to live do they use the rocks when they burrow if you notice it moves the rock to the top of the Burrow so that eventually it will build a little ring of rocks around the entrance to its burrow and when it goes in its burrow the end of the day it'll close the Burrow behind it with one of those rocks it's like its own little door to keep out unwanted guests what is different about this anti Anatomy you notice that it was a long fish and it had a really long extended dorsal fin that lets it dig in the sand and lift heavy rocks and move them around like a longer lever an adult sand tilefish can grow up to 27 inches about the size of two rulers so they're strong and great diggers juice and piles change colors like weed triggerfish do so they don't turn purple like a coin sugar but they can change color and typically when they're showing breeding colors the top of the body will be dark and the bottom half of the body will be lightened so it'll almost be like dark on the top and light on the bottom did you notice on their face that they have iridescent P markings yes I notice though there were right around the eyes yeah it was really really pretty these fish are quite impressive thanks Jackie for taking us along for the dive [Music] today was so fun what are some cool facts that we learned about the San tilefish they move rocks with their mouths after they move the rock with their mouths they use it as a door in their burrow and then close it like do not enter a fish that can change colors and make itself invisible to predators that's one super smart fish bye everybody see you next time on what's and see you [Music]

Channel: National Geographic Kids

Views: 33,796

Rating: 4.7096772 out of 5

Keywords: what sam sees, scuba diver, scuba diving, national geographic kids, nat geo kids, kids, kid, for kids, national geographic, nat geo, animals, making stuff, educational, fish, ocean, sand tilefish, One Sly Fish, The sand tilefish, colors, rocks, ocean floor, about the tricky fish, this episode, PLQlnTldJs0ZQHiJtBZwH91UMHdXPB3elF, PLQlnTldJs0ZR56MScVzlbeucr3brcHb-e, oceab floor, tricky fish, change colors

Id: -elIMFwlcgA

Length: 6min 13sec (373 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 14 2018