Photographs of a vibrantly-colored fish that looks too flashy to possibly be real have gone viral on Japanese social media, prompting many to ask on the off chance that it was the consequence of an excess of digital editing.
Last Friday, the popular YouTube channel Fishing Gang Azusa took to Twitter to post an exceptionally intriguing image of their latest catch – a flashy fish that almost looked painted. Individuals started asking if it was real or simply a case of an excess of Photoshop, however, it wasn’t before Azusa posted a video on YouTube of them catching the fish that the photographs became a web sensation. The footage shows the alien-looking fish in all its magnificence, leaving many watchers with their mouths open at the possibility that such a creature exists.
The painted-looking fish is known as ‘Kinubella’ in Japan, and ‘surge wrasse’ (Thalassoma purpureum) in the Western world. It lives in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans, where it inhabits reefs and rough coastlines. Despite its harmful-looking tone, the surge wrasse is palatable, although it is of minor importance to commercial fisheries, and more valuable as an aquarium fish.
Since the original photograph of the fish was posted on the Fishing Gang Azusa Twitter page, it has gotten more than 200,000 likes and 37,000 retweets. Individuals just can’t move past how alien it looks, with many claiming that it belongs in James Cameron’s Avatar.
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