While tidepooling in the Bay Area of California, I came across this super cool creature that looks like seaweed.

The Striped Kelpfish has an elongated and compressed body. It is brown, green or red in color and can be weakly striped or mottled in darker colors. It reaches a maximum length of 9 inches, with females being larger than males.

These neat fish are found in intertidal zones within algae beds including in tidal pools and within seaweed and the kelp canopy mid-water at depths up to 30 feet.

Kelpfish are known to change colors to adapt to their surroundings, they do this to hunt for their food, which is other small fish, crustaceans and mollusks…or to avoid becoming eaten.

They are considered to be an important component of the food chain preyed upon by a large variety of fish, sea birds and marine mammals.

The Striped Kelpfish is native to the Pacific Coast of North America from British Columbia, Canada to Baja California, Mexico.

Third Eye Herp
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