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Luiz Rocha

@coralreeffish

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Curator of Fishes @calacademy and @rolex Laureate renewing connections between people and the oceans through science, 📸, and stories of exploration.

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Now a beauty from the archives! 🐠💜

These are Tosanoides aphrodite, one of my favorite discoveries from the deep reefs. Named after Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty, this spectacular little fish certainly lives up to its name!

We discovered this species in the twilight zone reefs of St Paul’s Rocks, and later recorded it in Fernando de Noronha, starting at about 110m depth. It’s striking pink and yellow coloration makes it one of the most beautiful fishes I’ve had the privilege of seeing underwater.

I took these photos on an earlier expedition to Noronha but never got around to sharing them. With all the recent posts from the island, I figured it was time to give this beauty some attention! 🌊📸

These are the first in-situ images of the female, which I didn’t get to photograph in St. Paul’s Rocks when we first discovered it.

Photographing them in Noronha was especially challenging because they were exactly at the same depth as the thermocline. The “schlieren” effect was very prominent at 110m depth because of temperature change (the water went from cold to very cold, hahahaha), and to my despair most of my photos did not turn out very good. The bad part is that I couldn’t see this very well in the camera LCD, only in the computer after the dive. 😡 And as usual I only had 3-5 minutes to find and photograph these fish at that depth. by @coralreeffish

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3 days ago

You can’t always get what you want… at least not on the first try. 📸🐠

After almost 15 years shooting with my Nikon D500, I’m learning my way around the new Nikon Z8. It’s an amazing camera, but very different from what I’m used to underwater, and there’s definitely a learning curve.

These photos are a pretty good summary of the process: missed focus, bad timing, fish going the wrong way… and then, eventually, everything comes together.

Persistence pays off. Sometimes you just have to keep pressing the shutter until you get what you need. 😉

Big thanks to @backscattervideophoto and @nauticamhousings for their support as I make the transition to this new system, and to @scienceatdepth for the photo and video of me with the new beast! 🙏 And stay tuned for many more photos of rare fish taken with the Z8 in the future! taken in Fernando de Noronha by @coralreeffish

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10 days ago

Ready to dive deep? Join us for the next meeting of The Northern California Underwater Photographic Society (NCUPS), hosted by Backscatter!

We are thrilled to present our guest speaker, Luiz Rocha, Chair of Ichthyology at the California Academy of Sciences, for his incredible, free talk: “Into the Twilight Zone: Exploration and Photography on Deep Coral Reefs”.

Discover the mesophotic “twilight zone”—some of the least explored and unprotected coral reef ecosystems on Earth. Luiz will share how his team of scientists uses technical rebreather diving to document biodiversity at challenging depths of 50 to 150 meters. You won’t want to miss these stories behind his most memorable images, capturing rarely seen habitats and species new to science, all while managing low light and complex camera systems!

📅 Date: Friday, October 9, 2026 🚪 Doors Open: 7:00 PM Pacific Time 🎤 Presentation Starts: 7:30 PM Pacific Time

📍 Where: Join us in-person at Backscatter OR online via Zoom!

🔗 Join Zoom Meeting:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83027518235?pwd=xWXqyGKBuNmmMDuqaypbhv9M1uvoTL.1
Meeting ID: 830 2751 8235
Passcode: 048632

See you there!

#NCUPS #Backscatter #UnderwaterPhotography #ScubaDiving #OceanExploration taken in Backscatter Underwater Video & Photo by @coralreeffish

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16 days ago

Remote and isolated oceanic islands such as Bermuda in the north Atlantic, and Trindade and Fernando de Noronha in Brazil are home to an unusual hybrid, but let’s begin with the parent species. I’ve seen and photographed many of those in Noronha. First parent is the Coney, Cephalopholis fulva, a small grouper closely associated with the reef, spending most of its time and feeding near the bottom.

The other parent, the Creole Fish, lives a very different life. Paranthias furcifer often swims well above the reef, feeding on zooplankton in the water column. This one came closer to the bottom to be cleaned by the Noronha endemic cleaner goby Elacatinus phthirophagus seen just below it.

The hybrids are so distinctive that they were once given their own taxonomic identity, Menophorus dubius, before their hybrid origin was recognized. But they don’t just look intermediate between the two parent species. Their behavior and feeding ecology are intermediate too. Here, one is swimming and feeding up in the water column, more like Paranthias.

And here’s another closer to the reef, more like Cephalopholis. Their diet reflects the same pattern, combining feeding strategies of both parent species.

A hybrid that is intermediate not only in appearance, but also in the way it lives. #ichthyology #explore #marinesciences taken in Fernando de Noronha by @coralreeffish

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16 days ago

What does an ecological survey team bring underwater? Some essential field gear is less sophisticated than you might think. A surprising amount of it starts at the hardware store, then gets adapted to the job.

Our expedition brought researchers from several institutions together to contribute to a long term reef monitoring effort. Here’s what everyone brought into the field:

📏 Suzy brought a transect tape and homemade slates to record the crabs living in association with stony corals.

✏️ Alexia, proudly showing off her trick for not losing her precious pencil, conducted transects to survey reef fish communities.

📝 Lucas used an old but effective technique: a PVC pipe around his arm on which he can write underwater while conducting fish surveys.

📷 Tito carried the large photo quadrat. It keeps the camera at a consistent distance from the seafloor so photographs can be used to compare benthic communities.

🔨 Carla brought a hammer, chisel, and plenty of pre-labeled bags to collect stony coral samples for DNA and symbiotic algae analyses.

🐠 My job was to document which species we encountered and capture photographs that show the details needed for identification. For that, a good underwater camera setup was my most important piece of gear.

Different tools, different questions, and a lot of practical solutions that make field science possible. taken in Fernando de Noronha by @coralreeffish

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18 days ago

The Noronha cleaner goby (Elacatinus phthirophagus) is found only in Fernando de Noronha and Atol das Rocas. Gobies in this genus often have close associations with corals or sponges, but this species can be found living and setting up cleaning stations on both. Like other cleaner gobies, they make a living picking parasites and other unwanted passengers from visiting fishes, including some much larger than themselves.

One of the small but very charismatic Brazilian endemics we’ve been seeing here in Noronha! 🇧🇷🐠 taken in Fernando de Noronha by @coralreeffish

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21 days ago

This might be the best way to arrive with your gear for a scientific expedition.

Fernando de Noronha is one of the only places where a buggy is actually the main mode of transportation. And yes, one buggy really does fit the science gear, dive gear, and cameras for two researchers.

Kicking off our expedition here on the island. Follow along for more expedition content over the next few days! 🤿🔬 taken in Fernando de Noronha by @coralreeffish

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23 days ago

First dives in Fernando de Noronha with the PELD expedition! 🇧🇷🐠

Starting with a local: Halichoeres dimidiatus, a Brazilian endemic relatively common around Noronha. It’s always nice to spend time with species that you grew up with!

More fishes, reefs, and science from Noronha coming soon. 🌊 taken in Fernando de Noronha by @coralreeffish

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25 days ago

New paper out today in Ichthyology & Herpetology! We describe Prognathodes thanatos, the Spectral Butterflyfish, a new species of mesophotic chaetodontid from Mozambique, southeast Africa. The species is known only from the holotype, which was collected at a depth of 144 m aboard the R/V Fridtjof Nansen. It is also known from a handful of underwater photographs taken from KwaZulu-Natal and the Comoro Islands.

The specific epithet of the new species is given after Thanatos, the personification of death in Greek mythology. Thanatos is known for his gentle guiding of souls into the afterlife. Like the new species, Thanatos was frequently referenced in literature and folklore but was rarely encountered. The somber coloration of the new species, its association with very deep reefs, and the numerous low-resolution, trail-cam-Blairwitchy photos are evocative of melancholy or unease, hence the common name Spectral Butterflyfish.

Placement of the new species in the genus Prognathodes is provisional, and we discuss the currently inadequate definition of Prognathodes, its putative sister genus Roa, and the morphologically heterogenous assemblage of species currently occupying both genera. The study is accompanied by an osteological review of chaetodontids with lots of beautifully rendered micro-CT reconstructions.

DM me for a copy! by @coralreeffish

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a month ago

Next expedition coming up! 🌊🐠

But where am I headed?

The clues are all in these photos. If you know your reef fishes and your biogeography you might be able to figure it out. 👀

Any guesses? Drop them below 👇

Destination reveal soon… by @coralreeffish

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a month ago

📢Vem aí o IV SEMABIO!

Com prazer anunciamos o segundo palestrante confirmado do IV SEMABIO.

🎙O professor Prof. Dr. Luiz Alves Rocha.

🪸Com a palestra magistral: “Mergulhando no desconhecido – Explorando a maior fronteira de conhecimento nos Recifes de Coral”

📅 30 de novembro
⏰ 13h00
📍 Auditório Central do CFP/UFCG

Prepare-se para explorar dos recifes mais profundos aos maiores segredos da ciência. Esta é uma oportunidade para mudar o que você sabe sobre o oceano.

#IVSEMABIO #Biologia #Recifesdecoral #Ciências #UFCG by @coralreeffish

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2 months ago

Not every interesting fish photo has to be a great photo.

I photographed this pair of hybrid butterflyfishes (likely Chaetodon tinkeri × C. burgessi), at 110 m depth in the Marshall Islands. The two species are closely related but have different geographic distributions, and where their ranges overlap, they can occasionally hybridize, producing individuals with a fascinating mixture of characteristics from both species.

Seeing one hybrid is interesting. Finding a pair together at 110 m is the kind of observation that makes exploring deep reefs so rewarding, and also the kind of encounter where documenting what you see matters more than getting the perfect photograph.

Sometimes the most interesting photos are the ones that simply record something you weren’t expecting to find. #mesophotic #ichtyology taken in Marshall Islands by @coralreeffish

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2 months ago