Q well my aunt has a picture that she took while scuba diving in japanese waters and in this picture there is a fish that she said stayed mostly on the bottom and looked green.... the odd thing about this fish is that the pectoral fins looked almost like butterfly wings in a briliant green with other colors highlighting the fins.... the boddy looked in the picture to be one solid color and no ovious dorsil fins... i was just wondering if you could i dentify the fish for me and this was about 20 years ago the pic. was taken so i do not have an image to send... please help me identify the fish.

A Hi Elizabeth, Sounds like an interesting fish and it must have made a big impression on you.

From your description it sounds a lot like one of the butterfly gurnards in the fish family known as the Triglidae. If you do a web search you may be able to find pictures of this group.

These fish are characterised by large pectoral fins which often are brightly coloured as you have described. They also have a dorsal fin which may be folded against the body and not easily visible in the photo.

They are also fish that largely found on the bottom.

While not overly familiar with Japanese fish species we have a number of similar species in southern Australia.

Attached is a picture of one species of butterfly gurnard that may be useful for comparison.

I would be interested to hear if this is close to you aunts photo.

All the very best,

MR