Recently added to my saltwater setup...
Slippery dick (Halichoeres bivittatus)
This ocean dwelling fishis commonly found in shallow reefs across Western Atlantic all the way down to Brazil. Why the name you may ask. ‘Slippery’ because it coats itself with a mucus layer as a defence strategy when alarmed by a higher order predator. So if you were to grasp a slippery dick, beware it doesn’t slip away. Where the ‘Dick’ part comes from is still unknown. You can take a guess!
An average Slippery Dick is about 30 centimetres long, that’s a whopping 12 inches long. Contrast to its name all Slippery Dick’s are born as female and later many of the population willshift sexto become a male. In short they areprotogynous hermaphrodites.
They have an interesting mating ritual- The (now) male Slippery Dick is aggressive and forms its territory to show off its prowess. Sort of like afishyversion of WWE. A young male Slippery Dick is not territorial- it will mate with a number of females, whereas the older Slippery Dick will only mate with a single female a time.
Check out my Slippery Dick ... (photo UITB)
My Bio Page - Texas - Houston
you sneaky little thang you. Several times as a matter of fact 
