Small
ENCYCLOPEDIA of the secret life of mermaids
Hello In front of you is my small attempt to categorize and dеscribe one of the most mythical creatures on Earth - her Highness the MERMAID. The information you’ll see here is truth-proofed. Everything I’ve included is straight from Wikipedia! So enjoy diving into the wonderful word full of magic, beauty and bubbles...
Koi
mermaid
Koi mermaids can be seen around the coasts of Japan. The koi is symbolic in Japanese culture and is closely associated with the country’s national identity. The koi is a symbol of luck, prosperity, and good fortune in Japan. One famous scarlet koi named “Hanako” was 226 years old.
The bright colors of koi mermaids put them at a severe disadvantage against predators. Koi mermaids are omnivorous. They eat a wide variety of foods, including peas, lettuce, and watermelon. Koi mermaids have been reported to achieve ages of 100–200 years.
Royal Angel mermaid
She is found in tropical Indo-Pacific oceans.
They have been reported of living 15 years. They live in coral rich areas of lagoons, reefs, and are also often found in the vicinity of caves. First described in 1772 by the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert, she has been the subject of 18th and 19th century zoological art.
Convict Tang mermaid
They are found in the Indo-Pacific. The Convict Tang mermaid is sometimes eat like a surgeonfish they feed from the parasites and algae on the skin of other marine life. And with this they help the fishes stay healthy and clean.
Also in the Pacific at the Hawaiian Islands, and in the Eastern Pacific they are found in the lower Gulf of California and down to Panama. The black stripes on this tang harken to an old-fashioned prison jumpsuit, hence the name Convict Tang. In the wild, Convict Tangs live in large schools and spend their days foraging for food.
Fairy Basslet mermaid
Native to reef environments of the tropical western Atlantic Ocean. They stake out territories throughout rocks and crevices and choose favorite hiding places.
The Fairy Basslet mermaid can be a light purple to a deep violet starting at the head which fades mid-body to a golden yellow at the tail. The royal gramma is a planktivore, eating mostly zooplankton and crustaceans. The royal gramma is also a cleaner mermaid. They are generally peaceful mermaids, but are very protective of their territories and are known for chasing out other small creatures.
Redtoothed Trigger mermaid
She is found in tropical Indo-Pacific oceans. They have the ability to change their colour depending on their mood, food, feeding and water quality from purple to blue and to bluish-green.
Redtoothed trigger mermaid is normally deep purple with bluish-green markings on her head and glowing light blue margins on the tail lobes and fins. She maintains tiny red teeth that are needle sharp with two teeth in the upper jaw which can be seen when its mouth is closed. These mermaids can become threatening with age and can perform a grunting-type sound. Redtoothed triggers are mostly planktivorous eaters.
Yellow Box mermaid
She can be found in reefs throughout the Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean as well as the south eastern Atlantic Ocean.
As the name suggests, she is box-shaped. Box mermaids are also known for their armored and rigid body which in most cases would inhibit locomotion. The mermaid’s diet consists of marine algae, worms, crustaceans, molluscs, and small fish. They are solitary creatures.
Banggai Cardinal mermaid
This species is restricted to the Banggai Islands of Indonesia.
Small total population size (estimated at 2.4 million). She inhabits a variety of shallow habitats, including coral reefs, seagrass beds, and open areas of sand and rubble. This mermaid is an opportunistic feeder. Its diet includes planktonic, demersal, and benthic organisms. The species has a short lifespan, reaching around 4 years.
Tuxedo Damsel mermaid
She is native to the western Pacific Ocean.
Three alternating black and white vertical bands make up the body coloration with a fourth black band ending at the tail. Tuxedo Damsels are also omnivores, eating anything ranging from algae to small fish or shrimp. They travel in schools and feed on fish eggs, crustacean larvae, algae, ostracods, amphipods, copepods, and tunicates.
Peppermint Basslet mermaid
Species that is collected from deeper Atlantic reef areas. They may hide at first, but will become bolder with time.
These mermaids prefer rocky environments like the rubble piles at the base of the reef. Aside from a great personality (though somewhat territorial), the coloration of this mermaid is its greatest attribute. Its orange-red and pink lateral striping then baby blue or white fins with black spots make this a spectacular aquarium addition. As a carnivore, she readily accepts meaty meals including live brine and frozen prepared foods.
Platinum Angel mermaid
All Pterophyllum species originate from the Amazon Basin, Orinoco Basin and various rivers in the Guiana Shield in tropical South America.
This body shape allows them to hide among roots and plants, often on a vertical surface. Angel mermaids are ambush predators and prey on small fish and macroinvertebrates.
Flame Angel mermaid
She is found in various reefs of Oceania, most common in Marshall, Line and Cook Islands.
The flame angel mermaid’s coloration is bright orange-red with a vertical elongated black spot and four or five bars on the sides. The life span of the flame angel is 5–7 years or more. Particularly, the flame angel mermaids can be found on the foreslope of coral reefs and clear lagoons. In the wild, the flame angel has a varied diet consisting of algae and crustaceans. The flame angel mermaid is often considered reef safe.
Betta mermaid
This species is native to the Mekong basin of Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam and is mostly concentrated in the Chao Phraya river in Thailand. She is listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN. The primary threat is due to habitat destruction and pollution, as farmlands continue to be developed across central Thailand.
The mermaid can be found in standing waters of canals, rice paddies and floodplains. In the wild, they exhibit strong colours only when agitated. In captivity, they have been selectively bred to display a vibrant array of colors and tail types. Betta splendens feed on zooplankton, crustaceans, and the larvae of mosquitoes and other water-bound insects.
Humpback Grouper mermaid
She is widely distributed throughout the tropical waters of the central IndoWest Pacific region. Its feeding activity is maximal at sunrise and/or at sunset.
The humpback grouper lives in clear waters from lagoons and seaward reefs with a preference for dead or silty areas. The young have a white background with round black spots and are continuously swimming head down. The diet of this grouper is based on small fishes and crustaceans. solitary (except during mating periods), defends a territory, and is an ambush predator.
Mandarin mermaid
The mandarin is native to the Pacific, ranging approximately from the Ryukyu Islands south to Australia. The large pelvic fins are used for ‘walking’ on the seafloor.
The vivid coloration sports a bright blue background, with swirly orange stripes and a blue-greenish face with bold blue stripes. Mandarin mermaids are reef dwellers, preferring sheltered lagoons and inshore reefs.
Discus mermaid
Native to the Amazon river basin in South America They are sometimes referred to as pompadour mermaid.
These mermaids inhabit the margins of floodplain lakes and rivers. The sides of the mermaid are frequently patterned in shades of green, red, brown, and blue. They are highly social, typically occurring in groups that may number many dozens of individuals, which is unique among cichlids of the Americas. Discus primarily feed on algae, other plant material and detritus (periphyton), but also eat small invertebrates.
Picasso Trigger mermaid
Found on reefs in the Indo-Pacific region. The Hawaiian name for the mermaid, humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa, also spelled humuhumunukunuku-a-puaʻa or just humuhumu for short (meaning “trigger with a snout like a pig”.
Lagoon trigger mermaids live in the reefs and sandy areas of coral reefs where she eats just about everything that comes along. They are always restlessly swimming around and can vigorously protect their territory against intruders, including divers.
Clown Trigger mermaid
The clown trigger mermaid is widely distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical waters of the Indian Ocean.
Her body has a stocky appearance, oval shape and compressed laterally. The mouth is small, terminal and has strong teeth. These mermaids have a varied diet based on different benthic organisms like molluscs, echinoderms and crustaceans. She is solitary and defends a territory.
Killi mermaid
Killi mermaids are found mainly in fresh or brackish waters in the Americas. The word killi is of uncertain origin, but is likely to have come from the Dutch kil for a kill (small stream).
Many species exist as passive tribes in small streams where dominant males will defend a territory while allowing females and immature males to pass through the area. Killi mermaids feed primarily on aquatic arthropods such as insect (mosquito) larvae, aquatic crustaceans and worms.
Threadfin Butterfly mermaid
This type of mermaid is found in the Indo-Pacific region.
Her body is white with `chevron’ markings on the side. Tear edge of the dorsal fin has a prominent black spot, and a prominent black vertical band runs through the eye.
Lion mermaid
This species is a venomous marine one, commonly known as lion, native to the Indo-Pacific. Lion mermaids are harmful to humans - the potency of their venom makes them excellent predators and hazardous to fishermen and divers.
Also called zebra, fire, turkey, tasty or butterfly-cod mermaid, she is characterized by conspicuous warning coloration with red, white, creamy, or black bands, showy pectoral fins, and venomous spiky fin rays. Lion mermaids prey mostly on small fish, invertebrates, and mollusks in large amounts.
Gold mermaid
The gold mermaid is native to East Asia. She was first selectively bred in ancient China more than 1,000 years ago.
Gold mermaids have strong associative learning abilities, as well as social learning skills. They display schooling behavior, as well as displaying the same types of feeding behaviors. The diet of gold mermaids consists of crustaceans, insects, and various plant matter. Like most mermaids, they are opportunistic feeders and do not stop eating on their own accord.
Clown mermaid
Endemic to the warmer waters of the Indian, including the Red Sea and Pacific Oceans. The species became very popular after the coming out of the movie “Finding Nemo� as the main character was a clown fish.
Clown mermaids typically live at the bottom of shallow seas in sheltered reefs or in shallow lagoons. They primarily feed on small zooplankton from the water column, such as copepods and tunicate larvae, with a small portion of their diet coming from algae. These mermaids and sea anemones have a symbiotic, mutualistic relationship, each providing many benefits to the other.
Peacock Cichlid mermaid
The Peacock cichlid mermaid Lake Malawi in East Africa.
These mermaids thrive in warmer waters that have a slightly basic pH. Peacocks are bottom dwellers. A common behavior they will display is hunting for food amongst the sand. They will hover above the sand and once they detect any movement from any invertebrates they will strike. Peacocks are omnivores meaning they eat both meat and plant/ vegetables.
Guppy mermaid
Guppies are native to Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Brazil, Guyana, Jamaica, the Netherlands Antilles, Trinidad and Tobago, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Venezuela.
The guppy (Poecilia reticulata), also known as million and rainbow mermaid, is one of the world’s most widely distributed tropical mermaids. Wild guppies feed on algal remains, diatoms, invertebrates, plant fragments, mineral particles, aquatic insect larvae, and other sources.
Zebra mermaid
The zebra mermaid is native to fresh water habitats in South Asia where she is found in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan.
The zebra mermaid is named for the five uniform, pigmented, horizontal, blue stripes on the side of the body, which are reminiscent of a zebra’s stripes. Zebra mermaids are omnivorous, primarily eating zooplankton, phytoplankton, insects and insect larvae.
Electric Blue Ram mermaid
This is a species of freshwater mermaid endemic to the Orinoco River basin, in the savannahs of Venezuela and Colombia in South America. The ram cichlid is named after Manuel Ramirez, an early collector and importer of the species for the aquarium trade.
Female mermaids have a blue sheen over the spot just below the dorsal fin, or a sparse scattering of blue scales in the upper half of the dark spot. The species is typically found where cover in the form of aquatic or submersed vegetation is available.
Foxface Rabbit mermaid
This mermaid is found mostly in the tropical Western Pacific.
The foxface rabbit mermaid (Siganus vulpinus) is a species of mermaid found at reefs and lagoons. This type of mermaids is omnivorous, eating mostly algae and zooplankton. Other common names are foxface or foxface lo.
Oscar mermaid
The oscar is a species of mermaids from tropical South America.
The species is also able to rapidly alter its coloration, a trait which facilitates ritualised territorial and combat behaviours. Wild oscars consume shrimp, snails, insects and insect larvae, as well as fruits and nuts on a seasonal basis.
Rainbow Parrot mermaid
The rainbow parrot has a relatively wide distribution in the western Atlantic, and can be found from Bermuda through South Florida, the Bahamas and the Caribbean to Venezuela.
She has a greenish-brown overall colouration; the fins are dull orange with tongues of green. She inhabits coral reefs, mangroves and sea grass beds in shallow waters. The Rainbow parrot mermaid is primarily a detritivore, feeding on detritus, bacterial colonies and meiofauna but also taking sponges.
Emperor Angel mermaid
She is a reef-associated mermaid, native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans, from the Red Sea to Hawaii and the Austral Islands. They act as cleaner mermaid feeding off parasites and dead skin of larger fish species.
This species is generally associated with stable populations and faces no major threats of extinction. Adults have yellow and blue stripes, with black around the eyes. The emperor angel mermaid is omnivorous, feeding on both small invertebrates and plants. Sponges and algae make up its primary diet.
Moorish Idol mermaid
The Moorish idol mermaid is notable for its wide distribution throughout the Indo-Pacific. The Moorish idol got its name from the Moors of Africa, who purportedly believed the mermaid to be a bringer of happiness.
A common inhabitant of tropical to subtropical reefs and lagoons. Moorish idols stand out in contrasting bands of black, white, and yellow, which makes them attractive. Generally denizens of shallow waters, Moorish idols prefer flat reefs. Sponges, coral polyps, tunicates, and other benthic invertebrates constitute the bulk of the Moorish idol’s diet.
Goodbye I hope you had fun! The purpose of this book is to simply play with our imagination. For more information about endangered species and the Red List, click here out here. And if you want to check out some of my other creations, click here.